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French leave
Definitions
- 1 A departure taken quietly and unnoticed, without asking for permission or informing anyone. dated, idiomatic, informal, uncountable
"As for Ditton, after all his courting, and his compliment, he ſtole avvay an Iriſhman's bride, and took a French leave of me and his maſter; […]"
- 2 an abrupt and unannounced departure (without saying farewell) wordnet
- 3 Desertion or temporary absence from duty or service without permission; absence without leave, AWOL. dated, euphemistic, idiomatic, informal, specifically, uncountable
"he may have felt a particular need to mitigate the responsibility of those who shirked their duty, for as he wrote that letter he had just returned from French leave himself."
Etymology
From French (adjective) + leave (noun), apparently from a French custom, already recorded in the 18th century, of leaving from receptions or other events without formally announcing one’s departure to the host or hostess. Compare Spanish irse a la francesa and Portuguese sair à francesa (“go in the French manner”) but also the otherwise ubiquitous attribution of this behaviour to the English as with French filer à l’anglaise (“leave in the English manner”), Italian filarsela all'inglese, Polish wyjść po angielsku, etc.
See also for "french leave"
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Unscramble this word: frenchleave