let
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /lɛt/
rhymes: -ɛt
homophone: Lett
Forms: form: lets
form: letting
form: let
form: leet
form: let
form: leet
form: letten
form: lett
form: lettest
form: letteth
Etymology: Derived from Middle English leten, læten, from Old English lǣtan (“to allow, let go, bequeath, leave, rent”), from Proto-West Germanic *lātan, from Proto-Germanic *lētaną (“to leave behind, allow”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₁d- (“to be tired, leave”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots lat, lete (“to let, leave”), Yola leth (“let”), North Frisian leet, let, lätje (“to let”), Bavarian låssn (“to let”), Dutch, Low German laten (“to let, leave”), German lassen, laßen (“to let, leave, allow”), Luxembourgish loossen (“to let, leave”), Yiddish לאָזן (lozn, “to let”), Danish lade (“to let, allow, leave”), Faroese, Icelandic láta (“to let”), Norwegian Bokmål la (“to let, leave”), Norwegian Nynorsk la, lata, late (“let, allow”), Swedish låta (“to let, allow, leave”), Gothic 𐌻𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (lētan, “to let”), Albanian lë (“to allow, let, leave”) and partially related to French laisser (“to let”).
Senses: examples: text: After he knocked for hours, I decided to let him come in.
text: Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 8:28:
text: If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is[…]
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene vi]:
text: He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.
ref: 1971, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan:
text: The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
ref: 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
glosses: To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without to).
examples: text: Let me be!
text: Yet neither spinnes nor cardes, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16:
glosses: To allow to be or do without interference; to not disturb or meddle with; to leave alone.
examples: text: The physicians let about a pint of his blood, but to no avail.
glosses: To allow the release of (a fluid).
examples: text: I decided to let the farmhouse to a couple while I was working abroad.
text: Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents.
ref: 1965, Roger Miller, “King Of The Road”:
glosses: To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
examples: text: to let the building of a bridge;  to let out the lathing and the plastering
glosses: To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out.
examples: text: Let's put on a show!
text: Let us have a moment of silence.
text: Let me just give you the phone number.
text: Let P be the point where AB and OX intersect.
text: "Let there be no doubt: I saw you boyfriend with another girl" "Let him. I don't care anymore".
glosses: Used to introduce a first or third person imperative verb construction.
examples: text: Can you let me know what time you'll be arriving?
text: Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost and salewed the peple and the kyng and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde. Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne. And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij knyȝtes of the table round in their pauelions.
ref: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IV, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
english: So after a while King Pellinore came with a great host and saluted the people and the king, and there was great joy on every side. Then the king let search how many people of his faction were slain. And there were found only a little more than two hundred men slain, and eight knights of the Table Round in their pavilions.
translation: So after a while King Pellinore came with a great host and saluted the people and the king, and there was great joy on every side. Then the king let search how many people of his faction were slain. And there were found only a little more than two hundred men slain, and eight knights of the Table Round in their pavilions.
bold_translation_offsets: 145
148
text: Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand[…].
ref: 1818, John Keats, To—:
text: What right had the unclean and stupid farmer, whose farm abutted on this sky water, whose shores he has ruthlessly laid bare, to give his name to it? ... Rather let it be named from the fishes that swim in it, the wild fowl or quadrupeds which frequent it, the wild flowers which grow by its shores, or some wild man or child the thread of whose history is interwoven with its own...
ref: 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 212:
qualifier: obsolete except with know or be
glosses: To cause (+ bare infinitive).
Synonyms: sense: to allow
word: allow
sense: to allow
word: permit
Derived terms: bloodlet
buy-to-let
buy to let
don't let the bedbugs bite
don't let the door hit you on the way out
forlet
if it's yellow let it mellow
inlet
let alone
let a sleeping dog lie
let a thousand flowers bloom
let be
let blood
let bygones be bygones
let crazy stick its dick in you
let down
let drive
let fluffy off the chain
let fly
let George do it
let go
let her rip
let he who is without sin cast the first stone
let him that is without sin cast the first stone
let him who is without sin cast the first stone
let in
let in on
let into
let it all hang out
let it alone
let it be
let it be known
let it snow
let know
let lie
let loose
let me count the ways
let me see
let me tell you
let nature take her course
let Nature take its course
let nature take its course
let off
let-off
let off steam
let on
let one go
let one loose
let one off
let one rip
let one's guard down
let one's hair down
let one's nuts hang
let one's short back and sides down
let out
let past
let rip
let's
let sleeping dogs lie
let slide
let slip
let someone have it
let someone loose
let something ride
let something slip
lettable
letter
let the buyer beware
let the cat out
let the cat out of the bag
let the chips fall where they may
let the cobbler stick to his last
let the devil out
let the dice fall where they may
let the dog see the rabbit
let the door hit you where the good Lord split you
let the good times roll
let the grass grow round one's feet
let the grass grow under one's feet
let the matter drop
let them have it
let the perfect be the enemy of the good
let there be light
let the sleeping dogs lie
let things alone
let things be
let this cup pass from me
let through
lettor
let up
let us
let us count the ways
let us go
let us see
let well alone
let well enough alone
live-and-let-live
live and let live
offlet
outlet
re-let
relet
ship and let ship
sublet
take the cash and let the credit go
to let
underlet
unlet