beleave

From Middle English beleven, from Old English belǣfan (“to leave, let remain”), from Proto-Germanic *bilaibijaną. Equivalent to be- +‎ leave. Intransitive use may be influenced by related belive (“to remain”), which see.

• (weak vowel distinction) IPA^(key): /bɪˈliːv/, [bɪˈlɪi̯v]; /biˈliːv/, [bɪi̯ˈlɪi̯v]
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /bəˈliːv/, [bəˈlɪi̯v]

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -iːv
• Hyphenation: be‧leave
• Homophone: believe

beleave (third-person singular simple present beleaves, present participle beleaving, simple past and past participle beleft) (obsolete)

1. (transitive) To leave behind, abandon.

   Synonyms: desert, forsake; see also Thesaurus:abandon

2. (intransitive) To be left; to remain.

   Synonyms: continue, stay; see also Thesaurus:remain

• leave be

beleave

1. (Early Middle English, Essex; Kent) alternative form of bileve

From Middle English bileave, from Old English lēafa, from Proto-West Germanic *laubu.

• IPA^(key): /bəˈlɛːv/

beleave

1. belief

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 25