leave for dead

present singular third person leaves for dead · participle present leaving for dead · participle past left for dead · past left for dead

1. transitiveTo abandon a person or other living creature that is injured or otherwise incapacitated, assuming that the death of the one abandoned will soon follow.

   The Writer having received two wounds, is left for dead on the field

   1851, Personal Adventures of an Austrian Officer in the Hungarian War of 1848 and 1849

   2 more examples

   He stood in the middle of a narrow part of the road, stopped the horse, and struck Fyot with a heavy cudgel, leaving him for dead in the ditch.

   1835, Anne Laura Thorold, Letters from Brussels, in the summer of 1835

   When Steele rides after them, they shoot him and leave him for dead in the desert.

   2001, R. Phillip Loy, Westerns and American Culture, 1930-1955

2. broadlyfigurativelytransitiveTo disregard or bypass as unimportant.

   However, the hosts hit back and hit back hard, first replacement hooker Andrew Hore sliding over, then Williams careering out of his own half and leaving several defenders for dead before flipping the ball to Nonu to finish off a scintillating move.

   2011 September 16, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: New Zealand 83-7 Japan”, in BBC Sport