Leavings are the things left behind after someone takes what they want or need. When you finish your dinner and push away your plate, the scraps remaining are the leavings. When a lion finishes eating, hyenas and vultures arrive to fight over the leavings.

The word often suggests that what remains isn't the best part. If you arrive at a garage sale late in the day, you might find only the leavings: items nobody else wanted to buy. When older siblings pick through Halloween candy first, younger ones sometimes complain about getting stuck with the leavings.

In pioneer days, families used every part of animals they hunted, so even the leavings had value: bones became tools, hides became leather, and fat became soap. Today we might use leavings from dinner to make soup stock or compost for gardens.

The word can feel slightly harsh or dismissive. Calling something leavings suggests it's second-rate or unwanted. But sometimes leavings can surprise you. That book nobody wanted at the library sale might become your favorite, and those Halloween candies your sister rejected might be exactly the ones you love best.