| / English Dictionary |
LET ALONE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Leave unchanged or undisturbed or refrain from taking
Example:
leave the flowers that you see in the park behind
Synonyms:
leave; leave alone; leave behind; let alone
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "let alone" is one way to...):
forbear; refrain (resist doing something)
Verb group:
leave (have left or have as a remainder)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "let alone"):
let (leave unchanged)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP
II. (adverb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Much less
Example:
she can't boil potatoes, let alone cook a meal
Synonyms:
let alone; not to mention
Classified under:
Context examples:
Then there were cats, and rabbits, and turkeys; all these he must let alone.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
To her mother's inquiries she answered that she was quite well, and Jo's she silenced by begging to be let alone.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
All he asked of other dogs was to be let alone.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
Everything turned out well, which was a mercy, Hannah said, For my mind was that flustered, Mum, that it's a merrycle I didn't roast the pudding, and stuff the turkey with raisins, let alone bilin' of it in a cloth.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The man who travelled, loud-stepping, the direct line to the cabin door, he let alone—though he watched him vigilantly until the door opened and he received the endorsement of the master.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
It was better to eat small live things like ptarmigan chicks, and to let alone large live things like ptarmigan hens.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
There was one thing to be done before I left, an awkward, unpleasant thing that perhaps had better have been let alone.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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