gardening leave

noun

Garden leave.

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Meanings

noungardening leave (uncountable)
  1. UKuncountableGarden leave.

    Until September Mr Orcel was head of the investment bank at Switzerland’s UBS. He had been due to succeed José Antonio Álvarez in April, after “gardening leave”.

    2019 January 19, “Andrea Orcel’s move from UBS to Santander falls through”, in The Economist, →ISSN
    1 more example

    Goodchild had accepted an offer to move from UBS to Coutts, and because the two banks are in direct competition he was, as he expected to be, put straight on to "gardening leave".

    2008 August 1, Melissa Viney, “The secret garden”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
terminal leave
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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