Definition
verbTo allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without to).
verbTo allow to be or do without interference; to not disturb or meddle with; to leave alone.
Sentence Examples
I will let you know as soon as the decision is made.
Please let me help you with those heavy grocery bags.
Can you let me have the finished artwork for the poster by Friday?
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Pharaoh said, I will let you go."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 8:28:
"If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is[…]"
— 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]:
"He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark."
— 1971, Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan:
"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."
— 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:
"Yet neither spinnes nor cardes, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 16: