let slide

English

Etymology

From Middle English leten sliden (“to disregard, put aside, let pass, neglect”), equivalent to let +‎ slide.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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

1. (transitive, of intangibles) To let go, allow, release, pass over without action.

   The police officer let the ticket slide when she found her brother-in-law's car illegally parked.

   The administrator let the minor infraction slide with only a disapproving look.

   • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, →OCLC:

     With a calm carelessness letting each thing slide.

   • 1970, Larry Niven, Ringworld, page 277:

     Which statement Louis prudently let slide.

2. To pass out of one's thought as not being of any consequence.
3. (transitive, of persons) To tolerate a violation of a norm from.

   The judge let me slide on the speeding, but not on a $200 seat-belt violation.

4. (idiomatic) To allow the condition of something to deteriorate due to negligence or apathy.

   He let the farm slide after inheriting it from his father.

5. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see let,‎ slide.

Translations

to let pass

• Finnish: mennä (fi)
• Slovene: (neopaženo) miniti