[pa. pple. of LEAVE v.]
1. In senses of the vb. Now rare exc. in left-luggage (office, etc.).
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LIX. vi. They babling prate, How my left life extinguish may Their deadly hate.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, II. lviii. (1709), 432. How often does the lavish Gamester squander away a large left Patrimony.
1724. Ramsay, Wyfe of Auchtermuchty, xii. The twa left gaislings gat a clank.
1816. A. C. Hutchison, Pract. Obs. Surg. (1826), 173. He uniformly every night made a hearty repast from the left provisions.
1888. Ld. Herschell, in Law Reports, Ho. Lords, XIII. 53. Left-luggage offices for luggage brought to the station.
2. With advs. or advb. phrase; see LEAVE v.1 14.
1783. Cowper, Lett. to Newton, 17 Nov. He came to thank me for some left-off clothes.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, I. 23. The squire’s left-off chintz dressing-gown.
1852. R. S. Surtees, Sponge’s Sp. Tour (1893), 166. Our left-in-the-lurch friends.
1861. Sala, Dutch Pict., xxi. 324. The subject of left-off garments has always been an interesting one to me.
1888. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 211. The town is the queerest left-behind sort of a place.
b. absol. passing into sb. Chiefly colloq.
1890. Standard, 14 April, 2/6. Witness had given her some of his family’s left-offs.
