dejar

== Spanish == === Alternative forms === dexar (obsolete) === Etymology === Inherited from Old Spanish dexar, from Early Old Spanish lexar, from Latin laxāre, whence also laxar (a borrowed doublet). Also compare Portuguese and Galician deixar, Asturian dexar, Aragonese deixar, Catalan deixar, Occitan daissar, laissar, Sicilian dassari and both French laisser and délaisser. Early Old Spanish generally has l-, forms appearing with d- towards 1200. The change of the initial l- to d- in many (especially Iberian) Romance languages has been explained in various ways: most likely, it is due to the influence of the preposition de, often used in constructions with this verb, or from an influence of, or contraction of, Late Latin dēlaxāre (also attested in Old Spanish as delexar), due to rapid pronunciation (as is common in quasi-auxiliary verbs). Less likely explanations include influence from the verb dar (“to give”), or derivation from Latin dēsinere, the latter proving difficult on phonetic grounds. Compare English lease (sense 5), lax, and laxative. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /deˈxaɾ/ [d̪eˈxaɾ] Rhymes: -aɾ Syllabification: de‧jar === Verb === dejar (first-person singular present dejo, first-person singular preterite dejé, past participle dejado) (transitive) to leave (to place) (transitive) to leave, to keep (to allow to continue) (transitive) to leave (to cause, result in) (transitive) to let, allow Synonym: permitir Antonym: prohibir (transitive) to let go, put down (to release from one's grasp) Synonyms: soltar, (archaic) delejar (transitive) to drop off (transitive) to leave, to abandon, to dump Synonyms: abandonar, (archaic) delejar (transitive) to give up, to lay off, to kick (colloquial) Synonym: delejar (archaic) (transitive) to set, to put, to make (in certain phrases) (Spain, transitive, colloquial) to cut out (stop) Synonym: delejar (archaic) (intransitive) to leave off (intransitive, auxiliary) to cease, stop [with de (+ infinitive) ‘doing something’] Synonyms: parar, cesar, detener (reflexive) to be left [with a ‘to someone’] (reflexive) to let (oneself), to let oneself go (to cease to care about one's appearance) (reflexive, usually in the imperative, usually used with behavior nouns) to stop with something ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== === References === === Further reading === “dejar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025