"let George do it" meaning in English

See let George do it in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Sometimes explained as derived from French laissez faire à Georges, a satirical reference to the multiform activities of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1460–1510), but this is unlikely. Alternatively explained as a reference to Pullman porters, who were generically known as George. Etymology templates: {{der|en|fr|laissez faire à Georges|nocat=1}} French laissez faire à Georges, {{m|en|George|id=pullman porter}} George Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} let George do it, {{en-proverb}} let George do it
  1. (dated, US) Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit. Wikipedia link: Georges d'Amboise Tags: US, dated Related terms: George (english: autopilot of an aircraft), public good, free rider, tragedy of the commons

Download JSON data for let George do it meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "laissez faire à Georges",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "French laissez faire à Georges",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "George",
        "id": "pullman porter"
      },
      "expansion": "George",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Sometimes explained as derived from French laissez faire à Georges, a satirical reference to the multiform activities of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1460–1510), but this is unlikely. Alternatively explained as a reference to Pullman porters, who were generically known as George.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "let George do it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "let George do it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit."
      ],
      "id": "en-let_George_do_it-en-proverb-gaX96Uii",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, US) Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "english": "autopilot of an aircraft",
          "word": "George"
        },
        {
          "word": "public good"
        },
        {
          "word": "free rider"
        },
        {
          "word": "tragedy of the commons"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Georges d'Amboise"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "let George do it"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fr",
        "3": "laissez faire à Georges",
        "nocat": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "French laissez faire à Georges",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "George",
        "id": "pullman porter"
      },
      "expansion": "George",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Sometimes explained as derived from French laissez faire à Georges, a satirical reference to the multiform activities of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise (1460–1510), but this is unlikely. Alternatively explained as a reference to Pullman porters, who were generically known as George.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "let George do it",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "let George do it",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "english": "autopilot of an aircraft",
      "word": "George"
    },
    {
      "word": "public good"
    },
    {
      "word": "free rider"
    },
    {
      "word": "tragedy of the commons"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English eponyms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(dated, US) Let someone else incur the cost of achieving the shared benefit."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Georges d'Amboise"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "let George do it"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.