DictionaryAI

let alone

idiom · idiom

Formslets alone, letting alone, let alone

4 meanings of let alone

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  1. 1
    much less (negative)idiom
    Much less: used after a negative statement to bring in a usually bigger or more important case, which the first statement already rules out.

    Most of us can't afford a car, let alone a house in the city.

    The committee could not agree on a date for the meeting, let alone settle the budget.

    Note

    The phrase needs a negative before it, and the bigger or harder case comes second: you can't walk, let alone run, never the reverse. A rhetorical question can supply the negative, as in could there be a more unfortunate name for a locomotive, let alone for a horse? What follows usually mirrors what came before, a noun answering a noun and a verb a verb.

  2. 2
    stop botheringidiomtransitive
    To leave someone or something alone and stop bothering or interfering with them.

    Hikers are told to let bear cubs alone, however harmless they look.

    The reporters refused to let the grieving family alone.

    Oppositebother, disturb, pester

    Note

    As a verb the phrase splits around its object, as in let me alone or let the family alone, which is the quickest way to tell it from the "much less" conjunction. Its past tense and past participle are let alone too, unchanged. Leave alone does the same work.

  3. 3
    all the more (positive)idiomrare
    Not to mention: used after one item, usually in a positive statement, to add a further item that the first already implies.

    Within five years, let alone twenty, this neighborhood will look completely different.

    At the end of another ten years, let alone sixty, we are likely to see a very different pattern in the realm of British passenger locomotive power.
    1957, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Performance and Performance during Sixty Years”
    Note

    Without a negative in front, the phrase simply adds a larger case to a smaller one, and that use is rare. Cecil J. Allen, looking ahead in 1957, writes that at the end of another ten years, let alone sixty, British passenger locomotives are likely to look very different. Readers who expect the "much less" use may take it for a slip, so not to mention is the safer choice.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    rely onidiomdatedtransitive
    To rely on a person to do or manage something.
    Oh! let him alone for that. He's the boy that can get out of a scrape.
    1838, Marguerite Countess of Blessington, The Works of Lady Blessington (page 223)
    "It's not easy gettin' as good," rejoined the old woman, "an' you ought to be very glad to win him, if you can." "Let me alone for that," said Sally.
    1849, William Carleton, Tales and Sketches
    Note

    Here the phrase is a promise, and it lives in one fixed formula, let me alone for that or let him alone for that: trust me, or him, to manage it. In William Carleton's Tales and Sketches, told she ought to be glad to win him, Sally answers, Let me alone for that. A modern ear hears a plea to be left in peace instead, so today the promise is leave it to me.

Practice

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