Let Alone - Wiktionary

Jump to content

Contents

move to sidebar hide

• Beginning
• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Pronunciation
  • 1.2 Conjunction
    • 1.2.1 Usage notes
    • 1.2.2 Translations
    • 1.2.3 See also
    • 1.2.4 References
  • 1.3 Verb
    • 1.3.1 Derived terms
    • 1.3.2 Translations

• Entry
• Discussion

English

• Read
• Edit
• View history

Tools Tools move to sidebar hide Actions

• Read
• Edit
• View history

General

• What links here
• Related changes
• Upload file
• Permanent link
• Page information
• Cite this page
• Get shortened URL
• Download QR code

Print/export

• Create a book
• Download as PDF
• Printable version

In other projects Appearance move to sidebar hide From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Conjunction

[edit]

let alone

1. (idiomatic, chiefly in the negative) Much less; to say nothing of; used after one negative clause to introduce another, usually broader and more important clause, whose negation is implied by the negation of the first. However either of these instances mentioned can be applied with the use of let alone. He couldn't boil water, let alone prepare a dinner for eight.
   • 1953 December, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Performance and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 838:My last run this month is an amazing performance of an "A2/3" Pacific, No. 60524, Herringbone (could there possibly be a more infelicitous name for a locomotive than this, let alone for the unhappy horse which first had to bear it?), […].
2. (idiomatic, chiefly in the positive, rare) Not to mention, as well as; used after one item, to introduce a further item which is entailed by the first.
   • 1957 July, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Performance and Performance during Sixty Years”, in Railway Magazine, page 496: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.

Usage notes

[edit]

• Sometimes used with the order of items reversed.

Translations

[edit] to say nothing of

Arabic: نَاهِيك (nāhīk) Armenian: էլ չասած (ēl čʻasac), ուր մնաց (hy) (ur mnacʻ) Bulgarian: ка́мо ли (kámo li) Chinese: Mandarin: 更不用說 / 更不用说 (gèng bùyòng shuō), 何況 / 何况 (zh) (hékuàng), 遑論 / 遑论 (zh) (huánglùn) Czech: natož (cs) Danish: endnu mindre, endsige, end mindre Dutch: laat staan, gezwegen van, om maar te zwijgen van Esperanto: des malpli Finnish: puhumattakaan, saati (fi), saati sitten French: encore moins, et encore moins (fr), sans compter (fr), sans parler de (fr) German: geschweige denn, geschweige (de) Greek: πόσο μάλλον (el) (póso mállon) Hebrew: קַל וָחֹמֶר (he) (kal vaẖómer), לא כֹּל שֶׁכֵּן (he) (lo kol shekén), עַל אַחַת כַּמָּה וְכַמָּה (he) ('al aẖát kamma v'chamma) Hungarian: nemhogy (hu), hát még, még kevésbé, nem is beszélve, végképp (hu) Indonesian: apalagi (id) Ingrian: nesto Italian: nonché (it), per non parlare di, figuriamoci Japanese: どころか (dokoroka), もちろん (ja) (mochiron) Javanese: aja cacak (jv), aja manèh, apa manèh Korean: 커녕 (ko) (keonyeong) Latin: nedum Macedonian: ка́моли (kámoli) Norwegian: enn si Persian: چه برسه Polish: co dopiero (pl) Portuguese: muito menos, quanto mais, que dirá, quem dirá Romanian: darămite (ro), ce să mai vorbim, nici vorbă Russian: не говоря́ уже́ (о) (ru) (ne govorjá užé (o)), (а) тем бо́лее ((a) tem bóleje) Scottish Gaelic: gun luaidh Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: још мање, камоли, а камоли Roman: još manje, kamoli, a kamoli (sh) Slovak: a už vôbec nie, nehovoriac o Slovene: kaj šele Sorbian: Upper Sorbian: zabywši Spanish: y mucho menos, ni qué hablar de, por no hablar de, menos aún Swedish: än mindre, och ännu mindre Turkish: (colloquial) bırak Urdu: چہ جائے کہ (cih jā'ye kih)

as well as

Dutch: laat staan Finnish: puhumattakaan, saati (fi), saati sitten French: sans compter (fr), sans parler de (fr) German: geschweige denn Indonesian: apalagi (id) Italian: così come, come anche Polish: nie mówiąc już o Portuguese: ainda mais Romanian: ce să mai vorbim Slovak: a samozrejme Spanish: así como, sin contar con, además de

See also

[edit]

• a fortiori

References

[edit]

• Charles J. Fillmore, Paul Kay, Catherine O'Connor (September 1988) "Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone" Language (Vol.64 No.3) pp.501-538
• Mark Liberman (24 February 2011) "Much less/Or even" Language Log
• E. Ward Gilman (editor) Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage p.596, Merriam–Webster, 1994 →ISBN.

Verb

[edit]

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

1. (transitive) To leave alone, let be; to stop bothering. Synonym: leave alone I wish he would let me alone so I could get some sleep.
2. (transitive, colloquial, dated) To rely on (a person) to do something.
   • 1838, Marguerite Countess of Blessington, The Works of Lady Blessington (page 223) Oh! let him alone for that. He's the boy that can get out of a scrape.
   • 1849, William Carleton, Tales and Sketches, page 81:"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.

Derived terms

[edit]

• let it alone

Translations

[edit] leave alone

Dutch: met rust laten (nl) Finnish: jättää rauhaan Polish: zostawiać w spokoju impf, zostawić w spokoju (pl) pf Slovene: pustiti pri miru Spanish: dejar en paz, dejar (es) Swedish: lämna i fred

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=let_alone&oldid=87651538" Categories:

• English terms with audio pronunciation
• English lemmas
• English conjunctions
• English multiword terms
• English idioms
• English negative polarity items
• English terms with usage examples
• English terms with quotations
• English terms with rare senses
• English verbs
• English transitive verbs
• English colloquialisms
• English dated terms

Hidden categories:

• Pages with entries
• Pages with 1 entry
• Entries with translation boxes
• Terms with Arabic translations
• Terms with Armenian translations
• Terms with Bulgarian translations
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Terms with Mandarin translations
• Terms with Czech translations
• Terms with Danish translations
• Terms with Dutch translations
• Terms with Esperanto translations
• Terms with Finnish translations
• Terms with French translations
• Terms with German translations
• Terms with Greek translations
• Hebrew terms with redundant script codes
• Terms with Hebrew translations
• Terms with Hungarian translations
• Terms with Indonesian translations
• Terms with Ingrian translations
• Terms with Italian translations
• Terms with Japanese translations
• Terms with Javanese translations
• Terms with Korean translations
• Terms with Latin translations
• Terms with Macedonian translations
• Terms with Norwegian translations
• Persian terms with redundant script codes
• Terms with Persian translations
• Terms with Polish translations
• Terms with Portuguese translations
• Terms with Romanian translations
• Terms with Russian translations
• Terms with Scottish Gaelic translations
• Serbo-Croatian terms with redundant script codes
• Terms with Serbo-Croatian translations
• Terms with Slovak translations
• Terms with Slovene translations
• Terms with Upper Sorbian translations
• Terms with Spanish translations
• Terms with Swedish translations
• Terms with Turkish translations
• Terms with Urdu translations

Search Search Toggle the table of contents let alone 15 languages Add topic