let, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

let v.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

let-down (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

let a brewer’s fart grains and all (v.)

to foul one’s trousers.

1741		Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 38: ‘What a nasty smell is here of sour small Beer! but though I can admit some Grains of Allowance, yet it is good to remove in time, lest I be poisoned with a Brewer’s F—’.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Fart. a Brewers Fart, Grains & all, said of one who has bewrayd his breeches.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum n.p.: He has let a brewer’s fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches.

let down someone’s blind (v.)

to make clear that someone is dead.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

let fly (v.) [SE let fly, to fire, a missile, a gun, etc.]

1. to defecate.

1797

Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 3: Which scar’d ’em so confoundedly, / That every mother’s son let fly.

2. to break wind.

1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 117: He only then let fly behind.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 306: Some foul air within her rump / Came puffing with a thund’ring trump: / But letting fly too soon, we find / She drove so much unsav’ry wind / Up Jove’s broad nose.
c.1825		Friar and Boy 11: With that cracker she let fly, / Which seemed to shake the ground. [...] The little boy replied, / My mother has a good report, / You hear from her b--ks--e.

let go

see separate entries.

let go a razzo (v.)

see raspberry tart n. (2)

let go with (v.)

see separate entry.

let her flicker [running a reel of movie film]

(Aus./US) a phr. used at the start of some operations; usu. as OK, let her flicker ...

1861		E. Beeman letter 31 Dec. n.p.: The Papers seem to think that England is agoing to come against us. We are not in very good circumstances to contend with a foreign power. But if she wants to whip us let her flicker.
1908		S.E. White Riverman 64: ‘Satisfied?’ inquired the gambler briefly. ‘Let her flicker,’ replied Orde with equal brevity. A gasp of anticipation went up. Quite coolly the gambler made his passes. With equal coolness [...] Orde planted his great red fist on one of the cards.
1985		(con. 1930–50) E.W. Mills Paddle, Pack and Speckled Trout n.p.: Then, as a last resort, he had tied on his number A.1. ‘Super-special-never-fail’ yellow marabou feather bass fly, spit on it, said a little prayer and let her flicker.

let her go (Gallagher)

see separate entries.

let in

see separate entries.

let into (v.)

see separate entry.

let into the secret (v.)

see separate entry.

let it all hang out (v.) [a musicians’ term, this migrated to white hippie n.² (3) use and thence, like a number of similar terms, to the jargon of ‘new therapies’]

(orig. US black) to cast aside any restraints, to do what one wants.

1962		E. Stephens Blow Negative! 65: He’s pretty much a social lion [...] Lets it all hang out.
1974–5		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 123: Since Kev discovered he was gay and let it all hang out he hasn’t looked back.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 111: The late sixties. Pot, permissiveness, let it all hang out.
1999		Observer Rev. 12 Sept. 4: It was a dry state. So much for letting it all hang out.
2000		Observer Rev. 2 Apr. 3: They don’t mind being open, crazy, letting it all hang out.

let leap a whiting (v.)

to let an opportunity slip.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

let me hold some change

see under change n.

let off (n.)

see let-out n. (1)

let off (v.) [? play on SE let off steam]

to break wind.

1835		‘The Lady’s Front’ in Knowing Chaunter 10: My wife let off – ’twas not the thing, / While the maid, loud as thunder, / Split her latter-end asunder, / in F--ting ‘God save the King’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 353: Good job I let off there behind coming out of Dignam’s. Cider that was.
1962		K. Waterhouse There is a Happy Land (1964) 112: Raymond Garnett used to come up and go: ‘Poooh!’ and hold his nose as though I’d just let off.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 4: Someone had let off, and he knew who the culprit was.

let off (at) (v.)

to shout at, to attack verbally.

1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 167: The wife is letting off at them proper.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 177: I can hear her going into Mystery’s bedroom where she starts letting off.

let off steam (v.)

see blow off steam under steam n.

let off with (v.)

UK black to hand over, to surrender.

2020

G. Krauze What They Was 276: Unless you want it to get real stick, you need to let off with the keys.

let (one) go (v.)

see under one n.¹

let one’s hair down (v.)

1. to admit to being homosexual; to act in a ‘gay’ / ‘camp’ manner in the companmy of one’ speers.

1934		L. Levenson Butterfly Man 50: Ken had not understood what the judge meant when he boasted that he had ‘taken the veil’. ‘Exactly what does that mean?’ he asked Anita. ‘Letting your hair down, camping, and all the rest’ .
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: He let his hair down, admitted sexual perversion.
1949		‘N. Kent’ Divided Path 328: ‘So how’s our Army,’ smiled Michael, nodding toward the giggling group parading in front of the big mirror in their impromptu evening gowns. ‘I’ll bet their commanding officers would be surprised.’ ‘Probably so, but it does them good to let their hair down once in a while’ .
1951		‘D.W. Cory’ Homosexual in Amer. 63: I have been to parties at which forty or fifty persons let down their hair, unrestrained by conventions and inhibitions, and not a person there would have qualified for the appellation of queen, as the effeminate male is called.
1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 21: hair, to let down one’s (v.): To admit without restraint that one is a homosexual.
1969		S. Harris Puritan Jungle 130: ‘Just a fun place with people laughing and letting their hair down. Gay, you know.’ There. Finally, the word’s out.
c.1972		‘T. Everts’ Hard ten 81: ‘If you happened to show up when he was half blocked, do you think he might let his hair down and want a blow-job?’.
1989		S. Gray Born of man 101: That’s why when you get in the door of the Pink Flamingo and let your hair down you feel such relief.
2008		C. Brickell Mates & Lovers 206: Sometimes the queer world was quite separate from the institutions of square society, and paralleled it quite distinctly. Many were overt among their friends and blended in elsewhere; the ‘put their hair up’ during the week and ‘let it down’ again at weekends.

2. as let someone’s hair down, to ‘out’ a previously closeted homosexual.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

let out (at)

see separate entries.

let out her fore room and lie backwards/let out her parlour and lie backwards (v.)

see under fore-room n.

let rip (v.)

see separate entry.

let someone down a buttonhole (v.)

see take someone down (a buttonhole) under take down v.

let someone have it (v.)

see under have v.

let the badger loose (v.) [the ‘sport’ of badger-baiting]

(US, Western) to celebrate wildly, to ‘let off steam’.

1975		(con. 1900s) G. Swarthout Shootist 7: El Paso would soon be citified as Denver, far too highfalutin for a man who liked to let the badger loose now and then.
1999–2001		D. Alden ‘Every Wild Thing’ Alden Chronicles 🌐 We come to town to shop, have a few beers, have some fun. Got to let the badger loose once in awhile, you know.

let the horse out of the stable (v.)

1. to urinate.

2002

‘Little Donald’ Wetville.net 14 Jul. 🌐 Ruffy pulls the bf on to her as her crotch issues forth with a flood, soaking both bed and bf... she squirms as hot as a firecracker, squeesing and peeing, soaking and wetting, and the bfs pants are wet now too. Ruffy squirms about and rolls the bf over into the puddle, and finds a place to do some fondling of her own, and unzips his pants to let the horse out of the stable.

2. to reveal a secret.

2002

A. Justison Andyjustison.com 🌐 i’m not supposed to let the horse out of the stable quite yet...but no one reads this anyway. our tape editor is pregnant with her second child!!!

let the priest say mass

(Irish) a phr. used to reprimand someone who keeps interrupting or offering unwanted suggestions.

1997

Share Slanguage.

In exclamations

let ’em trundle!

go away! be off!

1700

Congreve Way of the World I ii: bet.: They are gone, sir, in great anger. peb.: Enough, let ’em trundle.

let her go (Gallagher)!

see separate entry .

let her rip!

see separate entries.

let her roll!

see let her rip! excl.¹

let him rip!/let it rip!

see let her rip! excl.²

let’s be having you! (also let’s have you!)

time to start work! get out of bed! drink up! etc.

1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: Wakey-wakey, rise and shine. Let’s have you!
2002		Guardian 16 Jan. 🌐 I know for a fact there is a large groundswell of opinion that for some reason is not being heard. Let’s be having you.
2003		Guardian 8 Aug. 🌐 And then, before they actually get round to deciding anything, the caretaker puts his head round the door and says: ‘Come on, let’s be having you, I want to lock up’.

let them rip!

see let her rip! excl.¹