"let sleeping dogs lie" meaning in English

See let sleeping dogs lie in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-let sleeping dogs lie.ogg [Australia] Forms: lets sleeping dogs lie [present, singular, third-person], letting sleeping dogs lie [participle, present], let sleeping dogs lie [participle, past], let sleeping dogs lie [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|let<,,let> sleeping dogs lie}} let sleeping dogs lie (third-person singular simple present lets sleeping dogs lie, present participle letting sleeping dogs lie, simple past and past participle let sleeping dogs lie)
  1. (idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past. Tags: idiomatic Related terms: agree to disagree, benign neglect, dog sleep, hands off, let bygones be bygones, let it be, let nature take its course, sleeping giant Translations (leave things as they are): 莫惹是非 (mò rě shìfēi) (Chinese Mandarin), 讓惹是非 (Chinese Mandarin), 让惹是非 (ràng rě shìfēi) (Chinese Mandarin), slapende honden wekt men niet (Dutch), ne elvoku lupon el la arbaro (Esperanto), älä herätä nukkuvaa karhua (Finnish), il ne faut pas réveiller le chat qui dort (French), schlafende Hunde weckt man nicht (German), ne ébreszd fel az alvó oroszlánt (Hungarian), ne keltsd fel az alvó oroszlánt (Hungarian), non svegliare il can che dorme (Italian), 寝た子を起こすな (neta ko o okosu na) (alt: ねたこをおこすな) (Japanese), nie rozdrapuj starych ran (Polish), nie wywołuj wilka z lasu (Polish), não cutucar a onça com vara curta (Portuguese), não cutucar a fera com vara curta (Portuguese), não acordar moscas que estão a dormir (Portuguese), não mexer com quem está quieto (Portuguese), não mexer em vespeiro (Portuguese), не буди́ ли́хо, пока́ спит ти́хо (ne budí líxo, poká spit tíxo) (Russian), не буди́те спя́щую соба́ку (ne budíte spjáščuju sobáku) (Russian), от греха́ пода́льше (ot grexá podálʹše) (Russian), не дирај лава док спава [Cyrillic] (Serbo-Croatian), ne diraj lava dok spava [Roman] (Serbo-Croatian), no marear la perdiz (Spanish), no marear la perdiz dejar las cosas tranquilas (Spanish), väck inte den björn som sover (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-let_sleeping_dogs_lie-en-verb-eEq8-MoP Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for let sleeping dogs lie meaning in English (6.6kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lets sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "letting sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "let<,,let> sleeping dogs lie"
      },
      "expansion": "let sleeping dogs lie (third-person singular simple present lets sleeping dogs lie, present participle letting sleeping dogs lie, simple past and past participle let sleeping dogs lie)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Eventually, they decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not discuss the matter any further.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868 August 29, “Sleeping Dogs”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 26, number 670, page 287",
          "text": "But, leaving novelists alone, on the whole we find in real life that if speech is silvern, silence is essentially golden, and that more harm is done by saying too much than by saying too little; above all, that infinite mischief arises by not letting sleeping dogs lie.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Helene Becker, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Orca Book Publishers, page 217",
          "text": "Sometimes you just had to let stuff go. Endlessly rehashing old hurts just made things worse. It was far better, I'd learned, to let sleeping dogs lie.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Kate Atkinson, Big Sky, page 261",
          "text": "Crystal might have said that those perfect lips were zipped, but the kidnappers had no way of knowing that. Should he let sleeping dogs lie?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past."
      ],
      "id": "en-let_sleeping_dogs_lie-en-verb-eEq8-MoP",
      "links": [
        [
          "restarting",
          "restarting"
        ],
        [
          "rekindling",
          "rekindling"
        ],
        [
          "argument",
          "argument"
        ],
        [
          "disagreements",
          "disagreements"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "agree to disagree"
        },
        {
          "word": "benign neglect"
        },
        {
          "word": "dog sleep"
        },
        {
          "word": "hands off"
        },
        {
          "word": "let bygones be bygones"
        },
        {
          "word": "let it be"
        },
        {
          "word": "let nature take its course"
        },
        {
          "word": "sleeping giant"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "mò rě shìfēi",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "莫惹是非"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "讓惹是非"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "ràng rě shìfēi",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "让惹是非"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "slapende honden wekt men niet"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "ne elvoku lupon el la arbaro"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "älä herätä nukkuvaa karhua"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "il ne faut pas réveiller le chat qui dort"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "schlafende Hunde weckt man nicht"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "ne ébreszd fel az alvó oroszlánt"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "ne keltsd fel az alvó oroszlánt"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "non svegliare il can che dorme"
        },
        {
          "alt": "ねたこをおこすな",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "neta ko o okosu na",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "寝た子を起こすな"
        },
        {
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "note": "触らぬ神に祟りなし (さわらぬかみにたたりなし, sawaranu kami ni tatari nashi, literally “if you don't touch a deity, it will not curse you”)",
          "sense": "leave things as they are"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "nie rozdrapuj starych ran"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "nie wywołuj wilka z lasu"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "não cutucar a onça com vara curta"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "não cutucar a fera com vara curta"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "não acordar moscas que estão a dormir"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "não mexer com quem está quieto"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "não mexer em vespeiro"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "ne budí líxo, poká spit tíxo",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "не буди́ ли́хо, пока́ спит ти́хо"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "ne budíte spjáščuju sobáku",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "не буди́те спя́щую соба́ку"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "ot grexá podálʹše",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "от греха́ пода́льше"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "tags": [
            "Cyrillic"
          ],
          "word": "не дирај лава док спава"
        },
        {
          "code": "sh",
          "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "tags": [
            "Roman"
          ],
          "word": "ne diraj lava dok spava"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "no marear la perdiz"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "no marear la perdiz dejar las cosas tranquilas"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "leave things as they are",
          "word": "väck inte den björn som sover"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-let sleeping dogs lie.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f0/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "let sleeping dogs lie"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "lets sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "letting sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "let sleeping dogs lie",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "let<,,let> sleeping dogs lie"
      },
      "expansion": "let sleeping dogs lie (third-person singular simple present lets sleeping dogs lie, present participle letting sleeping dogs lie, simple past and past participle let sleeping dogs lie)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "agree to disagree"
    },
    {
      "word": "benign neglect"
    },
    {
      "word": "dog sleep"
    },
    {
      "word": "hands off"
    },
    {
      "word": "let bygones be bygones"
    },
    {
      "word": "let it be"
    },
    {
      "word": "let nature take its course"
    },
    {
      "word": "sleeping giant"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Eventually, they decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not discuss the matter any further.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1868 August 29, “Sleeping Dogs”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 26, number 670, page 287",
          "text": "But, leaving novelists alone, on the whole we find in real life that if speech is silvern, silence is essentially golden, and that more harm is done by saying too much than by saying too little; above all, that infinite mischief arises by not letting sleeping dogs lie.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2016, Helene Becker, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Orca Book Publishers, page 217",
          "text": "Sometimes you just had to let stuff go. Endlessly rehashing old hurts just made things worse. It was far better, I'd learned, to let sleeping dogs lie.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019, Kate Atkinson, Big Sky, page 261",
          "text": "Crystal might have said that those perfect lips were zipped, but the kidnappers had no way of knowing that. Should he let sleeping dogs lie?",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "restarting",
          "restarting"
        ],
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          "rekindling"
        ],
        [
          "argument",
          "argument"
        ],
        [
          "disagreements",
          "disagreements"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "En-au-let sleeping dogs lie.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/f/f0/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/En-au-let_sleeping_dogs_lie.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "mò rě shìfēi",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "莫惹是非"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "讓惹是非"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "ràng rě shìfēi",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "让惹是非"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "slapende honden wekt men niet"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "ne elvoku lupon el la arbaro"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "älä herätä nukkuvaa karhua"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "il ne faut pas réveiller le chat qui dort"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "schlafende Hunde weckt man nicht"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "ne ébreszd fel az alvó oroszlánt"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "ne keltsd fel az alvó oroszlánt"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "non svegliare il can che dorme"
    },
    {
      "alt": "ねたこをおこすな",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "neta ko o okosu na",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "寝た子を起こすな"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "note": "触らぬ神に祟りなし (さわらぬかみにたたりなし, sawaranu kami ni tatari nashi, literally “if you don't touch a deity, it will not curse you”)",
      "sense": "leave things as they are"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "nie rozdrapuj starych ran"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "nie wywołuj wilka z lasu"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "não cutucar a onça com vara curta"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "não cutucar a fera com vara curta"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "não acordar moscas que estão a dormir"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "não mexer com quem está quieto"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "não mexer em vespeiro"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ne budí líxo, poká spit tíxo",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "не буди́ ли́хо, пока́ спит ти́хо"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ne budíte spjáščuju sobáku",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "не буди́те спя́щую соба́ку"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "ot grexá podálʹše",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "от греха́ пода́льше"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "tags": [
        "Cyrillic"
      ],
      "word": "не дирај лава док спава"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "tags": [
        "Roman"
      ],
      "word": "ne diraj lava dok spava"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "no marear la perdiz"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "no marear la perdiz dejar las cosas tranquilas"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "leave things as they are",
      "word": "väck inte den björn som sover"
    }
  ],
  "word": "let sleeping dogs lie"
}

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