leaf

Meaning

Noun

1. The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
2. Anything resembling the leaf of a plant.
3. A sheet of a book, magazine, etc (consisting of two pages, one on each face of the leaf).
4. A sheet of any substance beaten or rolled until very thin.
5. Tea leaves.
6. A flat section used to extend the size of a table.
7. A moveable panel, e.g. of a bridge or door, originally one that hinged but now also applied to other forms of movement.
8. A foliage leaf or any of the many and often considerably different structures it can specialise into.
9. In a tree, a node that has no descendants.
10. The layer of fat supporting the kidneys of a pig, leaf fat.
11. One of the teeth of a pinion, especially when small.
12. (slang) Cannabis.
13. A Canadian person.

Verb

1. To produce leaves; put forth foliage.
2. To divide (a vegetable) into separate leaves.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/liːf/

Etymology

From Middle English leef, from Old English lēaf, from Proto-West Germanic *laub, from Proto-Germanic *laubą (“leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *lowbʰ-o-m, from *lewbʰ- (“leaf, rind”)
See also West Frisian leaf, Low German Loov, Dutch loof, German Laub, Danish løv, Swedish löv, Norwegian Nynorsk lauv, Icelandic lauf; also Irish luibh (“herb”), Latin liber (“bast; book”), Lithuanian lúoba (“bark”), Albanian labë (“rind”), Latvian luba (“plank, board”), Russian луб (lub, “bast”).
(Internet slang: Canadian): In reference to the maple leaf as national symbol.