leaving 1 of 3

adjective

as in departing

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leaving

2 of 3

noun

as in retirement

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Dissimilar Words

leaving

3 of 3

verb

present participle of leave
1
as in abandoning
to cause to remain behind you can leave your lunch in the refrigerator while we're outside starry-eyed lovers who promise never to leave one another

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in bequeathing
to give by means of a will I'm going to leave all of my possessions to my children

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3
as in quitting
to give up (a job or office) he left his job in the city and moved out into the country

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
4
as in handing
to put (something) into the possession or safekeeping of another why don't you leave your watch with me while you swim?

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5
as in dumping
to end a usually intimate relationship with is there ever a good way to leave a lover?

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
6
as in letting
to give permission to aw, leave him come

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of leaving
Noun
This is because a senior leader's exit, whether by choice or not, affects the business far more than one employee leaving. — Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2026 The signing of Anan Khalaili from Union Saint-Gilloise has opened the door for the possibility of the 30-year-old leaving. — Matt Woosnam, New York Times, 18 Aug. 2026 Why leaving room for changes matters Weather, closures and travel delays can rewrite an itinerary overnight. — Ashley Lynch, Kansas City Star, 3 Aug. 2026 There have been other senior exec exits, with All3 COO Sara Geater and Group Director of Corporate Development Steven Brown leaving. — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 21 July 2026 The students, who were taking their secondary school leaving examinations when they were attacked and abducted, are between 15 and 18 years old. — ABC News, 30 June 2026 News of their leaving sent Google’s shares tumbling more than 5% on Monday. — Jeremy Kahn, Fortune, 23 June 2026 Investigators never found footage of her leaving, according to the outlets, and her body has not been recovered. — Christina Coulter, PEOPLE, 3 June 2026
Verb
The message was about taking care of one another — a seed Dyer has worked hard to plant and grow since leaving his electrical engineering career more than a decade ago to become a Presbyterian minister. — Heidi Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 14 Aug. 2026 There is also romanticism around the return of Sergio Canales to Racing, with the 35-year-old former Real Madrid and Real Betis playmaker coming back to his hometown club 16 years after first leaving for the Bernabeu. — Dermot Corrigan, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2026 Flooding pours into Indiana homes and businesses Photos and videos out of Indiana show scenes of destruction as floodwater rushed into homes and businesses, leaving them in shambles. — Dalia Faheid, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2026 Not many people are leaving their vacation to get home for the primary. — Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 14 Aug. 2026 On Wednesday, August 12, Swift was photographed in London leaving Annabel’s, a notoriously ultra-exclusive private members club. — Allison Degrushe, StyleCaster, 13 Aug. 2026 Leo, who did not sign an NDA after leaving ITN, has a history of mental health issues. — Jake Kanter, Deadline, 13 Aug. 2026 In the 1950s, much of the Jewish community in Kochi (historically known as Cochin), a seaport on India’s southwestern coast, immigrated to Israel, leaving behind their homes, synagogues and cemeteries. — ABC News, 7 Aug. 2026 Long Beach police have shared new video of a hit-and-run driver who allegedly crashed into two teens on motorized dirt bikes in July, leaving both hospitalized. — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 7 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for leaving
  1. departing
  2. abandoning
  3. bequeathing
  4. quitting
  5. handing
  6. dumping
  7. letting
  8. retirement
Noun
  • Sunday is expected to be the busiest day at O'Hare Airport, with more than 300,000 passengers arriving or departing.
    — Lauren Victory, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • While Schmid fills the role of a high-end backup, Florida still needs to acquire a starting-caliber goaltender prior to the start of the season with both Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov departing.
    — Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 30 June 2026
Definition of departing
Verb
  • Nessel says the party is abandoning civil discourse—making the August gathering a powder keg.
    — Staff, FOXNews.com, 13 Aug. 2026
  • Not abandoning something tedious that was never wanted in the first place, but stepping away from work that was chosen and mattered, at the first small snag.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of abandoning
Verb
  • As temple members met their gruesome death, documents bequeathing some $7 million to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were spirited out of Jonestown in a suitcase stuffed with cash.
    — James Kirchick, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2026
  • William inherited the piece after her death in 1997, eventually bequeathing it to his wife.
    — Hannah Malach, InStyle, 17 June 2026
Definition of bequeathing
Verb
  • Some children are quitting school and starting to work to help their families make ends meet.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026
  • The bundle exists to make quitting feel like downgrading a lifestyle, which is a lesson learned from airlines and Amazon Prime, applied for the first time to a checking account.
    — Zennon Kapron, Forbes.com, 6 Aug. 2026
Definition of quitting
Verb
  • And then the Toronto Blue Jays took the next three, handing the Red Sox their second five-game losing streak of the season.
    — Louisa Thomas, New Yorker, 16 Aug. 2026
  • Tens of thousands of people showing up believing that something was going to happen to them that night, and handing you that certainty.
    — Jeff Rabhan, Rolling Stone, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of handing
Verb
  • Here’s how to tell when trauma dumping might be reaching unhealthy levels in a friendship or relationship, according to therapists—and how to repair.
    — Angela Haupt, Time, 12 Aug. 2026
  • The Independence Police Department received a tip that Kitara and another man may have beaten Simpson with a ratchet before dumping her body in an unknown location, according to court documents.
    — Caroline Zimmerman, Kansas City Star, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of dumping
Verb
  • But there's a risk in letting the college application checklist strategy become the blueprint for a teenager's entire high school experience.
    — Sarah Hernholm, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026
  • Twitch had a simple justification for letting its parent company, Amazon, use streamers’ content to train generative AI by default.
    — Angela Yang, NBC news, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of letting
Noun
  • Mashburn said baby boomers are redefining retirement, right down to who runs the place.
    — Itay Hod, CBS News, 18 Aug. 2026
  • Lenti Ponsetto, after 18 years leading DePaul athletics—and 42 years overall at the private Big East school—announced her retirement in June 2020, just six weeks after Conviser filed her initial suit in Cook County court.
    — Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of retirement

Browse Nearby Words

leave-takings
leaving
leaving off
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Cite this Entry

“Leaving.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/leaving. Accessed 20 Aug. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of leaving for Spanish Speakers

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