From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtea leavesˈtea leaves noun [plural] DFDthe small pieces of leaves used to make tea. People sometimes look at the leaves left at the bottom of a cup to find out what will happen in the future.
Examples from the Corpus
tea leaves• Helen uncovered her cup, checking to see if her tea leaves had sunk all the way to the bottom yet.• I had to make do with stewing the old tea leaves.• Miss Honey got a teapot from the cupboard and put some tea leaves into it.• I bet Barrow was choked, he smiled to himself as he emptied stale tea leaves from the pot into the sink.• We rolled up tea leaves, leaves, everything.• All this without even seeing your tea leaves. 