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let

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "let"

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

  • lett (archaic)
  • lettest (2nd person singular simple present and simple past; archaic)
  • letteth (3rd person singular simple present; archaic)

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

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”), North Frisian lete (“to let”), West Frisian litte (“to let”), Dutch laten (“to let, leave”), German lassen (“to let, leave, allow”), Swedish låta (“to let, allow, leave”), Danish lade (“to let, allow, leave”), Icelandic láta (“to let”), Albanian lë (“to allow, let, leave”) and partially related to French laisser (“to let”).

Verb

let (third-person singular simple present lets, present participle letting, simple past let or (obsolete) leet, past participle let or (obsolete) letten)

  1. (transitive) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without to).
    After he knocked for hours, I decided to let him come in.
  2. (transitive) To allow to be or do without interference; to not disturb or meddle with; to leave alone.
    Let me be!
  3. (transitive) To allow the release of (a fluid).
    The physicians let about a pint of his blood, but to no avail.
  4. (transitive, chiefly British) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
    I decided to let the farmhouse to a couple while I was working abroad.
    • 1965, Roger Miller, “King Of The Road”:
      Trailers for sale or rent, rooms to let, fifty cents.
  5. (transitive) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out.
    to let the building of a bridge;  to let out the lathing and the plastering
  6. (auxiliary, transitive) Used to introduce a first or third person imperative verb construction.
    Let's put on a show!
    Let us have a moment of silence.
    Let me just give you the phone number.
    Let P be the point where AB and OX intersect.
    "Let there be no doubt: I saw you boyfriend with another girl" "Let him. I don't care anymore".
  7. (transitive, obsolete except with know or be) To cause (+ bare infinitive).
    Can you let me know what time you'll be arriving?
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter IV, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV:
      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.
      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.
    • 1818, John Keats, To—:
      Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand […].
    • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “The Ponds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 212:
      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...
Usage notes
  • The use of “let” to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative, in the sense of “to allow”. For example, the sentence “Let me go to the store.” could either be a second-person imperative of “let” (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of “go” (not implying any such preventer).
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

let (plural lets)

  1. The allowing of possession of a property etc. in exchange for rent.
    • 1854, Charles Dickens, Christmas Stories‎, page 317:
      Then he says “You would call it a Good Let, Madam?”
      “O certainly a Good Let sir.”
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Derived from Middle English letten (“to hinder, delay”), from Old English lettan (“to hinder, delay”; literally, “to make late”), from Proto-West Germanic *lattjan, from Proto-Germanic *latjaną. Akin to Old English latian (“to delay”), Dutch letten, Old English læt (“late”). More at late, delay.

Verb

let (third-person singular simple present lets, present participle letting, simple past letted, past participle let)

  1. (archaic) To hinder, prevent, impede, hamper, cumber; to obstruct (someone or something).
  2. (obsolete) To prevent someone from doing something; also to prevent something from happening.
    • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XXI, Chapter ii, leaf 421r:
      & there was syr Mordred redy awaytynge vpon his londage to lette his owne fader to lāde vp the lande that he was kyng ouer.
      "And there was Sir Mordred ready awaiting upon his landing, to let his own father to land upon the land that he was king over."
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts viij:
      And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?
  3. (obsolete) To tarry or delay.
    • 1826, Early Metrical Tales; Including the History of Sir Egeir, Sir Gryme, and Sir Gray-Steill, Edinburgh, The History of Sir Eger, Sir Grahame, And Sir Gray-Steel, page 7:
      And for that strake I would not let, / Another upon him soon I set, […]

Noun

let (plural lets)

  1. An obstacle or hindrance.
    Without let or hindrance
  2. (tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.
Derived terms
  • without let or hindrance
Translations

References

Anagrams

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Champenois

Alternative forms

  • (Rémois) leuil, leil
  • (Langrois) leu

Etymology

Inherited from Old French lit, from Latin lectus.

Pronunciation

Noun

let m (plural lets)

  1. (Troyen, Langrois) bed

References

  • Daunay, Jean (1998), Parlers de Champagne : Pour un classement thématique du vocabulaire des anciens parlers de Champagne (Aube - Marne - Haute-Marne)‎ (in French), Rumilly-lés-Vaudes
  • Baudoin, Alphonse (1885), Glossaire de la forêt de Clairvaux‎ (in French), Troyes
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Czech

Czech Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia cs

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *letъ.

Noun

let m inan

  1. flight (the act of flying)
Declension
Declension of let (hard masculine inanimate)
More information singular, plural ...

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

let n

  1. genitive plural of léto

Further reading

Danish

Etymology 1

Derived from Old Norse léttr, from Proto-Germanic *linhtaz, cognate with Swedish lätt, English light and German leicht.

Pronunciation

Adjective

let (plural and definite singular attributive lette)

  1. light (not heavy)
  2. easy
  3. slight
  4. mild
Inflection
More information positive, comparative ...

1 When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite,
the corresponding "indefinite" form is used.
2 The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

Synonyms

Adverb

let

  1. lightly
  2. easily
  3. slightly
  4. mildly

References

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of letmælk.

Pronunciation

Noun

let c (singular definite letten, plural indefinite let)

  1. low-fat milk
Declension
More information common gender, singular ...

References

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

Verb

let

  1. imperative of lette

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

Verb

let

  1. past participle of le
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Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

let

  1. inflection of letten:
    1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English let.

Pronunciation

Interjection

let

  1. (tennis) indicates a let on service

Further reading

Friulian

Etymology

Inherited from Latin lēctus, perfect passive participle of legō.

Verb

let

  1. past participle of lei (“read”)

Gothic

Romanization

lēt

  1. romanization of 𐌻𐌴𐍄

Irish

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Contraction

let (triggers lenition)

  1. (Munster) contraction of le do (“with your sg”)
    let thoil ― please
Irish preposition contractions
More information Basic form, Contracted with ...

North Frisian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Old Frisian lēta, from Proto-West Germanic *lātan.

Pronunciation

Verb

let

  1. (Sylt) to let

Conjugation

More information infinitive I, infinitive II ...
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Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

Derived from Old Norse litr (“colour”), related to líta (“to see”).

Noun

let m (definite singular leten, indefinite plural leter, definite plural letene)

  1. color / colour
Synonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Verb

let

  1. imperative of lete

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Norse litr (“colour”), from Proto-Germanic *wlitiz, *wlituz. Related to Old Norse líta (“to see”).

Alternative forms

Noun

let m (definite singular leten, indefinite plural leter or letar, definite plural letene or letane)

  1. color / colour
    Synonym: farge
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Verb

let

  1. present tense of la
  2. present of lata
  3. past tense of la
  4. past of lata

Etymology 3

Verb

let

  1. imperative of leta

Further reading

Anagrams

Old English

Pronunciation

Verb

lēt

  1. first/third-person singular preterite indicative of lǣtan

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *letъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

lȇt m inan (Cyrillic spelling ле̑т)

  1. flight

Declension

More information singular, plural ...

References

  • “let”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Slovene

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *letъ.

Pronunciation

Noun

lȅt m inan

  1. flight

Declension

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.
More information Masculine inan., hard o-stem, nom. sing. ...

Tok Pisin

Etymology

Derived from English leather.

Noun

let

  1. leather
  2. strap (of leather)
  3. belt

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