leafy

• leavy

From leaf +‎ -y.

• enPR: lēfʹē, IPA^(key): /ˈliːfi/

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• Rhymes: -iːfi

leafy (comparative leafier, superlative leafiest)

1. covered with leaves

   leafy trees

2. containing much foliage
   • 2019 February 13, Emily Dixon, “China and India are making the planet greener, NASA says”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     The Earth is facing a climate crisis, but it’s also getting greener and leafier. According to new research, the rise is largely courtesy of China and India.

   a leafy avenue

3. in the form of leaves (of some material)
4. resembling a leaf
   • 2021 July 1, Gregory McNamee, “Does spinach make you strong? Ask Popeye – and science”, in CNN‎^[2]:

     Another option is to wash spinach and other leafy greens thoroughly in running water before eating them.

5. (of a place) wealthy, middle- or upper-class

   They live in a beautiful house in a leafy suburb.

   • 2008 January 23, Robert Syms, “Housing and Regeneration Bill: Exclusions from Subsidy Arrangements”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons)‎^[3], column 392:

     Those are not necessarily the leafiest areas. From the tenants of Durham, £1,671,546 was used to subsidise people elsewhere. I am not familiar with Durham, it may be a very leafy place in the north-east, but I suspect that there is a need for those funds.

   • 2014 July 21, Kyle Caldwell, “Income tax league table: the towns that pay the most and least tax in Britain”, in Daily Telegraph‎^[4], archived from the original on 11 June 2015:

     Income tax payments cost the average British taxpayer £4,985 a year, but those who reside in the leafiest areas of the country pay three times this amount.

   • 2014 October 10, Fraser Nelson, “Clacton by-election: The Tories cannot fight for leafy areas and forget the poor”, in The Guardian‎^[5]:

     The Tories plan to give their all against the other Ukip defector, Mark Reckless, in the more prosperous Rochester & Strood next month. But this plays to the stereotype: Tories fighting for leafy areas, hiding from the poorer ones.

   • 2025 July 11, Barbara Speed, “I loved Girls – but could I trust Lena Dunham to write about London?”, in The Guardian‎^[6]:

     In an essay for the New Yorker about her own move, also prompted by a breakup, Dunham contrasts the chaotic grit of New York with the “spaciousness” of London – a city that “doesn’t jangle me”. Dunham, as you may by now be sensing, lives in one of the leafier parts of north London.

• (in the form of leaves (of some material)): foliated, laminate, layered

• Fayle, fayle