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leisure

UK/ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/US/ˈlɛʒə(ɹ)/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,288 of 15,258leans written

Leisure is time free from work, to use however you please. The hours that belong to you.

The word covers a whole industry, so leisure centres, leisure facilities and the leisure sector all exist. It also has a slower, older flavour in the phrase at your leisure, which means without hurrying and is a polite thing to say when handing somebody a task. A lady of leisure is a joke about not having to work. British and American English pronounce the first syllable quite differently.

David Shankbone · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of leisure

  1. 1nounleisureTime free from work, available for enjoyment.B1+

    “He had very little leisure that year.”

Phrases it lives in

  • at your leisure — whenever it suits you, without hurrying

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    licēre — be permitted

  2. Old French

    loisir — to enjoy oneself

  3. Anglo-Norman

    leisir

  4. Middle English

    leyser

  5. English, today

    leisure

From Middle English leyser, from Anglo-Norman leisir, variant of Old French loisir (“to enjoy oneself”) (Modern French loisir survives as a noun), substantive use of a verb, from Latin licēre (“be permitted”). Displaced native ǣmetta.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 4 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

leisure in the wild

  • A hobby is a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time.

    Hobby

  • If it were not, people would have worked instead of taking leisure.

    Leisure

  • A related concept is social leisure, which involves leisurely activities in social settings, such as extracurricular activities, e.g. sports, clubs.

    Leisure

  • Recreation is an activity of leisure, often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun".

    Recreation

  • In his best-known book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen coined the concepts of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.

    Thorstein Veblen

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the licēre family

license

leisure — used about once every 1,327 pages · #5,288 · point at the bar for the others

  • leisure centre