let be

English

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To not disturb or meddle with; to leave (someone or something) alone (see let it be).

   Will you never let me be?

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXI, page 35:

     Another answers, ‘Let him be,
     ⁠He loves to make parade of pain,
     ⁠That with his piping he may gain
     The praise that comes to constancy.’

2. (intransitive, archaic) To stop, to stop doing something; to leave off (now used alone, formerly also + infinitive).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Let be therefore my vengeaunce to disswade [...].

3. (mathematics) Used to assign a value to a symbol.

   Let f be any real-valued function on I and g be any real-valued function on J.

Derived terms

• leaves of three, let it be
• let it be

Translations

not disturb

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 放任 (zh) (fàngrèn), 聽任／听任 (zh) (tìngrèn)

• Danish: lade være
• Finnish: antaa olla, jättää rauhaan
• French: laisser tranquille
• German: in Ruhe lassen
• Japanese: 放っておく (ほうっておく, hōtte oku), ほっとく (ja) (hottoku)
• Polish: dawać spokój impf, dać spokój (pl) pf
• Russian: оставля́ть в поко́е impf (ostavljátʹ v pokóje), оста́вить в поко́е pf (ostávitʹ v pokóje)
• Scottish Gaelic: leig le

stop

• Finnish: lakata (fi)

used to assign a value

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 设...为

• Danish: lade være
• Finnish: olkoon (fi)
• French: soit (fr) (singular or plural), soient (fr) (plural)
• German: sei (de)
• Japanese: とする (ja) (to suru)
• Romanian: fie (ro)
• Turkish: olsun

Anagrams

• betel