What does "leave like" mean?

Question

The news left me like a fool.

What does it mean? Is the grammar ok here?

_{[Originally asked by birdman1234]}

Answer 1

The sentence is semantically incorrect. Although used often, especially in song texts, the more correct version of your specific sentence would be without the "like" or with a word such as standing or feeling:

The news left me a fool

The news left me standing/feeling like a fool

Merriam-Webster: leave

to cause or allow to be or remain in a specified condition leave the door open, his manner left me cold

In your example

The news left me flabbergasted

I read your sentence as:

When I got the news, it affected me so much, I was left looking/feeling like a fool.

Answer 2

What the sentence immediately appears to be doing is likening the news to a fool, which is grammatically correct but semantically dubious.

Compare a similar sentence:

The punch hit me like a bullet.

There is a large ellipsis — “would hit me” could be added to the end. But it is obvious that it is the punch which is being likened to a bullet, not me.

In order that what is after like refers to me, another verb needs to be added:

The punch had me reeling like a drunkard.

Swapping the metaphors around makes nonsense, or at least, changes the meaning rather dramatically:

The punch hit me like a drunkard.
The punch had me reeling like a bullet.

Now, one can mangle all sort of things with poetic licence¹, and it’s just about possible to [grudgingly] accept that the original sentence might be likening me to a fool, simply because news cannot be: that makes no sense at all. The same applies to my last two sentences: with some effort, they can be untangled. But ideally there would be more context which established that form of language.

As a bare sentence on its own, in order to be semantically correct, it's grammatically dubious.

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¹ Perhaps the anapaestic rhythm in like a fool is necessary.