Leaf definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (55)

American Heritage Dictionary (14)

noun A usually green, flattened, lateral structure attached to a stem and functioning as a principal organ of photosynthesis and transpiration in most plants.
noun A leaflike organ or structure.
noun Leaves considered as a group; foliage.

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Century Dictionary (34)

An expanded, usually green, organ of a plant, of transient duration, produced laterally from a stem or branch, and, with others, arranged upon the stem in a definite and symmetrical order. In the most complete sense, a leaf consists of a blade or lamina, the broad, flat portion; a footstalk, leafstalk, or petiole, the linear portion connecting the blade with the stem; and a pair of appendages, the stipules, at the base of the petiole: but often the petiole, and still more often the stipules, are wanting. In any case, leaf very frequently denotes merely the blade, especially with descriptives: as, a cordate, an ovate, a lanceolate leaf, etc. Leaves are simple or compound, according as they have one or several blades. They are distinguished also by the arrangement of their veins. (See nervation.) Physiologically, the normal function of leaves is assimilation—that is, the transformation of inorganic into organic matter, which takes place only in the green parts of the plant. But leaves may be converted to various other uses—for example, into means for the capture and maceration of insects, as in sundew and Venus's fly-trap, or into organs for climbing, as in the pea-vine; and in many other ways leaves depart from the typical description above given. Robyn was in mery Scherwode As lizt as lef on lynde. Robin Hood and the Monk (Child's Ballads, V. 14). Languid leaves whereon the autumn blows—The dead red raiment of the last year's rose. Swinburne, Two Dreams.
Anything resembling a leaf, as in being flat and relatively broad, or in being a flexible or movable attachment or addition to something else. A single thickness of paper in a book or folded sheet; hence, with reference to the words written or printed upon it, the part of a book contained in one of such leaves. This is a lef of vre bileeue as lettret men vs techeth. Piers Plowman (A), viii. 162. Had she loked that other half and the lef torned, She shulde haue founden fele wordis folwyng therafter. Piers Plowman (B), iii. 338. I turn The leaf to read them. Shak., Macbeth, i. 3. 152.
A separately movable division of a folding or sliding door, fire-screen, table, hinge, etc. To Sir Philip Warwick's, to dinner, where abundance of company come in unexpectedly; and here I saw one pretty piece of household stuff, as the company increaseth, to put a larger leaf upon an ovall table. Pepys, Diary, II. 238. The entrance to the park lay through an old fashioned gateway in the outer wall, the door of which was formed of two huge oaken leaves, thickly studded with nails. Scott, Kenilworth, iii.

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Examples (50)

'Over the leaf is a letter to my mother DEAR HONOURED MOTHER Your weakness afflicts me beyond what I am willing to communicate to you. — Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1
It has bell shaped, white flowers that come out at the leaf joints, but the leaf is already formed. — Shelbyville Times-Gazette Headlines
In addition to a memorial tree being planted, a leaf will be added to the Memorial Tree located inside City Hall. — The Green Bay Press-Gazette Latest Headlines
The color of the leaf is a green color that is darker on top than it is on bottom and during the fall the color of the leaf turns yellow. — CreationWiki - Recent changes [en]
Chewing coca leaf is a central part of daily life for men in the Sierra, where they grow the plant on small, legal plots. — Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories

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leave · blossom · flower · twig · foliage · fruit · seed · bark · root · grass · stem · bud

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old English lēaf.

Century Dictionary (2)

from Middle English leef, lef (plural leves), from Anglo-Saxon leáf (plural leáf) = Old Saxon lōbh = OFries. laf = Dutch loof = Middle Low German lōf = Old High German loub, loup, Middle High German loup, German laub = Icelandic lauf = Swedish löf = Danish löv = Gothic (Moesogothic) laufs, a leaf. Cf. Lithuanian lāpas = Russian lepeste, a leaf, Greek λέπος, λεπίς, a scale (see lepis). For the L. and Greek words for ‘leaf,’ see foil. Hence ult. lobby, lodge; in comp. Middle English lefsel.
from leaf, n. Cf. leave, v.

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