slang, texting
left on read
Meaning
- Having a message seen but not answered.
- Used more broadly for being ignored after being clearly noticed.
“I sent three follow-up texts and got left on read every time.”
Where it came from
The phrase depends on read receipts, a feature Apple added to iMessage in 2011 that later spread to other apps. Urban Dictionary logged “left on read” by 2016, and it became standard dating and texting vocabulary by 2017 and 2018.