overleave
overleave verb: to leave (something) over; cause to remain or be left.
Verb
overleave (third-person singular simple present overleaves, present participle overleaving, simple past and past participle overleft)
- To leave (something) over; cause to remain or be left.
- And of such force was this verity, so fresh and recent in men's memory, that amongst so many enemies of his, that lay in wait to overleave him with lies, no one was thenceforth found who could refell [deny] these words of Campion.1999, Saint Edmund Campion, James V. Holleran, A Jesuit Challenge
- To remain; be left over.
Noun
overleave (uncountable)
- A leave which exceeds the approved or prescribed amount of time.
- [...] Absence without leave (including overleave and desertion).1949, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps Manual, 1949
- “Didn't you threaten to bobtail one of your sergeants for being drunk and overleave in Shanghai last week?2011, L Ron Hubbard, Orders Is Orders
Forms of overleave
| third-person singular present | overleaves |
|---|---|
| present participle | overleaving |
| past participle | overleft |
| past | overleft |
Origin of overleave
From Middle English overleven, from Old English oferlǣfan (“to leave over; be left over, remain”), equivalent to over- + leave.
From over- + leave (“permission, furlough”).
Words formed from overleave
- overleft
Questions about overleave
- What does overleave mean?
- Overleave means to leave (something) over; cause to remain or be left.
- What part of speech is overleave?
- Overleave can be a verb or a noun.
- What is the past tense of overleave?
- The past tense of overleave is overleft.
Words near overleave in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: overleave (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “overleave.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overleave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.