Word.ws English Dictionary

allow nature to take its course

allow nature to take its course is the alternative form of let nature take its course.

Meaning of let nature take its course

Verb

let nature take its course (third-person singular simple present lets nature take its course, present participle letting nature take its course, simple past and past participle let nature take its course)

  1. (idiomatic) To permit events to proceed or a situation to develop without intervention or interference.
    • "Do you mean to put a secret-service operative aboard disguised as a deckhand?"
      "Huh! Skinner, you distress me. I'm going to put Matt Peasley aboard the Quickstep as second mate, and let Nature take its course."1916, Peter B. Kyne, chapter 27, in Cappy Ricks
  2. (euphemistic, idiomatic) To allow a person or animal to die without medical or other attempts to forestall death.
    • I have slashed veins in my ankles and am pleasantly bleeding to death in this hot water. There is no greater kindness you can do me than to let nature take its course.1984, Piers Anthony, On A Pale Horse, →ISBN, page 145
    Synonyms:
    stand aside

Forms of allow nature to take its course

third-person singular presentallows nature to take its course
present participleallowing nature to take its course
past participleallowed nature to take its course
pastallowed nature to take its course

Questions about allow nature to take its course

What is allow nature to take its course the alternative form of?
Allow nature to take its course is the alternative form of let nature take its course.

Words near allow nature to take its course in the dictionary

  1. allovers
  2. allow
  3. allow for
  4. allow it
  5. allow nature to take her course
  6. allow nature to take its course
  7. allow'd
  8. allowabilities
  9. allowability
  10. allowable
  11. allowableness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: allow nature to take its course (page history and authors); let nature take its course (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “allow nature to take its course.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/allow_nature_to_take_its_course. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.