left-behindadj.n.
/ˈlɛf(t)bᵻˌhʌɪnd/, /ˌlɛf(t)bᵻˈhʌɪnd/, U.S. /ˈlɛf(t)bəˌhaɪnd/, /ˌlɛf(t)bəˈhaɪnd/, /ˈlɛf(t)biˌhaɪnd/, /ˌlɛf(t)biˈhaɪnd/ A. adj.
That has or have been left behind; (also) relating to those who have been left behind.
ΚΠ
1851 T. H. Chivers Eonchs of Ruby 86 Waiting, with exultant madness, For the left-behind lost gladness Of the days of long ago.
1888 W. Morris Let. 6 Sept. in J. W. Mackail Life W. Morris (1899) II. 211 The town is the queerest left-behind sort of a place.
1941 E. Bowen Look at all those Roses 242 Emma's left-behind silver things.
1965 B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irregular i. 38 The section was for a few weeks engaged in organising ‘left behind’ parties all over the British Isles.
2005 N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Jan. 24/2 Your son's friend must make an effort to determine if the left-behind bike was itself stolen.
B. n.
A person who has been left behind. With the and plural agreement: those who have been left behind collectively.
ΚΠ
1858 W. Johnson Ionica 109 This pathos draws from you, though true and kind, Only bland pity for the left-behind. We part; you comfort one bereaved, unmanned.
1872 J. G. Whittier Pennsylvania Pilgrim & Other Poems 78 The gone before, the left behind, All mortal voices die between.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 18 Apr. 3/1 (title) The little brothers. Or, the land of the left-behind.
1965 Economist 21 Aug. 674/2 They could have risen out of the ghetto of the left-behind but for their colour.
1991 T. Winton Cloudstreet v. 183 You could tell she was a survivor, a leftbehind, by the far off look in her eyes.
1992 New Republic 6 Apr. 36/2 She has made her subject the odd ones out of Russian society, the sad left-outs or left-behinds of even the closest communal living.
2007 A. Theroux Laura Warholic xxxvi. 585 The racism, the grumbling intolerance, the left-behind's panicky refuge against a dizzily changing modern world.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1851