From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft, attested in Old English lyftādl, from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (compare dialectal English lib, Western Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup-.

• (RP, America) IPA: /ˈlɛft/

left

1. Designating the side of the body toward the west when one is facing north; the side of the body on which the heart is located in most humans; the opposite of right. This arrow points to the reader's left: ←

   Synonyms: sinister, sinistral

   Antonyms: right, dexter, dextral

   The left side.

2. (geography) Designating the bank of a river (etc.) on one's left when facing downstream (i.e. facing forward while floating with the current); that is, the north bank of a river that flows eastward. If this arrow: ⥲ shows the direction of the current, the tilde is on the left side of the river.
3. (politics) Left-wing; pertaining to the political left.

   Antonyms: right

   • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:

     It should be noted that there is now no intelligentsia that is not in some sense "Left". Perhaps the last right-wing intellectual was T. E. Lawrence. Since about 1930 everyone describable as an “intellectual” has lived in a state of chronic discontent with the existing order.

• French: gauche
• German: link
• Italian: sinistro
• Portuguese: esquerdo
• Russian: ле́вый
• Spanish: izquierda

• German: links
• Portuguese: de esquerda, liberal, esquerdista
• Russian: ле́вый
• Spanish: de izquierda

left (not comparable)

1. On the left side.

   Antonyms: right

2. Towards the left side.

   Antonyms: right

   Turn left at the corner. NO! Your other left.

3. Towards the political left.

   Antonyms: right

   The East Coast of the US leans left in elections.

• French: à gauche
• German: links
• Italian: a sinistra
• Portuguese: à esquerda
• Russian: сле́ва
• Spanish: a la izquierda

• French: à gauche
• German: links, nach links
• Italian: a sinistra
• Portuguese: esquerdo, sestro
• Russian: нале́во
• Spanish: a la izquierda

left (plural lefts)

1. The left side or direction.

   Synonyms: 9 o'clock, port

2. (politics) The left-wing political parties as a group; citizens holding left-wing views as a group.

   The Left left workers behind, thinking they had a winning demographic coalition. It hasn't really worked out for them yet.

3. The left hand or fist.
4. (boxing) A punch delivered with the left fist.
5. (surfing) A wave breaking from left to right (viewed from the shore).

   Antonyms: right

• (political left) left wing, leftists

• French: gauche
• German: Linke
• Italian: sinistra
• Portuguese: esquerda
• Russian: ле́вый
• Spanish: izquierda

• French: gauche
• German: Linke
• Italian: sinistra
• Portuguese: esquerda
• Russian: ле́вый
• Spanish: izquierda

From Middle English left, variant of laft, from Old English læfd, past participle of lǣfan.

1. Simple past tense and past participle of leave.

   There's not much food left.

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:

     Afore we got to the shanty Colonel Applegate stuck his head out of the door. His temper had been getting raggeder all the time, and the sousing he got when he fell overboard had just about ripped what was left of it to ravellings.

• French: restant
• German: übrig
• Italian: rimasto
• Portuguese: deixado, sobrar, restar
• Russian: оста́вшийся
• Spanish: sobrado, sobras

From Middle English levit, ilevet, y-levyd, from Old English ġelȳfd, ġelȳfed, past participle of Old English ġelȳfan, lȳfan, equivalent to leave + -ed.

1. Simple past tense and past participle of leave.

   We were not left go to the beach after school except on a weekend.

1. (politics) The political left wing seen as a whole, as distinguished from an individual left-wing political party.

• (political left) left wing, leftists

• Right