Left him (for) dead

Question

However the village sacred man became more and more jealous of the teacher. One morning when the teacher was kneeling in prayer, the sacred man sprang upon him with his great club and left him for dead, wounded, bleeding and unconscious. The teacher recovered a little and crawled to the mission house.

HI,

Is the bolded "for" in the above optional? If not, what does it mean? Thanks.

Philip · Accepted Answer

Without for it would indicate that he had, indeed, been killed.

As it is, it indicates that the sacred man assumed he was dead.

[Some sacred man, by the way!

]

Angliholic · Answer

Thanks, Philip, for the crytal clear explanation.

But I still have some doubt. If the sacred man assumed the teacher was dead, why "dead" is followed by "wounded ...?"

RayH · Answer

AngliholicBut I still have some doubt. If the sacred man assumed the teacher was dead, why "dead" is followed by "wounded ...?"

It's amazing how expectations can affect how one sees a text. When I first read your post I didn't even notice the "wounded..." part, I read "left him for dead" and, expecting that to be it, skipped to the last sentence.

In fact it should be either "left him for dead" or "left him wounded, bleeding and unconscious" but not both.

Philip · Answer

AngliholicThanks, Philip, for the crytal clear explanation.

But I still have some doubt. If the sacred man assumed the teacher was dead, why "dead" is followed by "wounded ...?"

RayH has answered correctly (quite frankly, I hadn't noticed what followed, as I was concentrating only on your question about the use of the preposition). Another answer as to why it appeared as it did: poor writing.

Left him (for) dead

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