by your leave

prepositional phrase

With your permission.

Meanings

prepositional phrase
  1. With your permission.

    "By your leave, Mr. Turner" […] "By YOUR leave, Mr. Norrington."

    2006, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
    3 more examples

    Sir I weare my weapon for mine owne defence, And by your leaue will weare it yet a while.

    1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], →OCLC, Act III

    Miſtris Ford, by my troth you are very wel met: / by your leaue good Miſtris.

    c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 40, column 2

    She leaned over and picked up Lightning. "By your leave, your Grace."

    1983, Tamora Pierce, Alanna: The First Adventure
nounby your leave (plural by your leaves)

plural by your leaves · alternative by-your-leave

  1. Request for permission.

    1946, Konstantin Trenev, In a Cossack Village, and Other Stories He picked flowers without so much as a 'by your leave.'

    3 more examples

    1897, Shanghai Mercury, Shanghai by Night and Day: Illustrated by 23 Reproductions from Photographs. Vol. I. The natives have gathered on the top of every grave mound near by and though many resent the riding over their fields without a so much as a 'By your leave' […]

    One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next minute my livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by-your-leave!

    1979, Monty Python's Life of Brian, spoken by Ex-Leper (Michael Palin)

    1986, Judith A. Jance, Trial by Fury 'To a place you've broken into without so much as a by-your-leave, to say nothing of a search warrant?'

Cite this entry
APA

by your leave. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20your%20leave

MLA

“by your leave.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20your%20leave. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “by your leave,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/by%20your%20leave.

Source: by your leave on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.