Word.ws English Dictionary

getting off lightly

getting off lightly is the present participle and gerund of get off lightly.

Meaning of get off lightly

Verb

get off lightly (third-person singular simple present gets off lightly, present participle getting off lightly, simple past got off lightly, past participle (UK) got off lightly or (US) gotten off lightly)

  1. (idiomatic) To end up with a mild punishment, or without serious harm.
    • My cousin got off lightly with a restraining order after he broke the boy’s leg.

Questions about getting off lightly

What is getting off lightly the present participle and gerund of?
Getting off lightly is the present participle and gerund of get off lightly.

Words near getting off lightly in the dictionary

  1. getting moving
  2. getting nowhere fast
  3. getting off
  4. getting off at Haymarket
  5. getting off at Redfern
  6. getting off lightly
  7. getting off on
  8. getting off on the right foot
  9. getting off on the wrong foot
  10. getting off one's ass
  11. getting off one's backside

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: getting off lightly (page history and authors); get off lightly (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: “getting off lightly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/getting_off_lightly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.