From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English leave off phrasal verb 1 to stop doing something take up/pick up/continue (something) etc where somebody left off (=continue something that has stopped for a short time) Barry took up the story where Justine had left off. leave off doing something British English informal ‘Will you leave off nagging?’ he snarled. 2 leave somebody/something off (something) to not include something such as someone’s name in a list or other document Why was her name left off the list? → leave → See Verb table Examples from the Corpus leave off • I would keep on reading the first few pages, forgetting where I had left off.