Word.ws English Dictionary

be not to know

be not to know verb: to not have the required information.

Verb

be not to know (third-person singular simple present is not to know, present participle being not to know, simple past was not to know, past participle been not to know)

  1. (UK, especially) To not have the required information.
    • You weren’t to know.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see be, not, to, know.

Forms of be not to know

third-person singular presentis not to know
present participlebeing not to know
pastwas not to know
past participlebeen not to know

Questions about be not to know

What does be not to know mean?
Be not to know means to not have the required information.
What part of speech is be not to know?
Be not to know is a verb.
What is the past tense of be not to know?
The past tense of be not to know is was not to know.

Words near be not to know in the dictionary

  1. be mum
  2. be my guest
  3. be no exception
  4. be no match for
  5. be no stranger to
  6. be not to know
  7. be off with you
  8. be on
  9. be on at
  10. be on days
  11. be on nights

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: be not to know (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “be not to know.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/be_not_to_know. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.