English Expression: Leave someone in your wake
There are two ways to look at this Expression. First, leave someone in your wake can mean to pass them in a race or competition of some kind. Of course, it’s never nice to experience someone passing you in a race, but the expression itself is neither negative or positive.
As I explained in an earlier post, wake refers to the waves left behind by a boat moving through the water. If one boat passes another, then the slower boat will be left in the wake of the faster boat. So far so good, right?
OK, next let me explain the second way to look at this expression. This meaning is negative.
If you leave something in your wake, you create some disturbance, destruction, confusion or other problems behind you.
Most recently we could use the unfortunate city of Mosul in Iraq as an example. The battle between ISIS and the Iraqi army is over, and Mosul is now free.
However, the fighting has left a destroyed Mosul in its wake. Everything is up in the air at the moment, and it will take many years for the city to recover.
As a less strong example, we could think about children. Yes, children and what they do, are an excellent example.
Children may enter a tidy room, but when they leave, they leave a lot of mess and minor destruction in their wake.
Mothers all around the world know it’s a full-time job to follow children around and clean up after them.