Word.ws English Dictionary

let nature take its course

let nature take its course verb: to permit events to proceed or a situation to develop without intervention or interference.

Verb (1)

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
    • A boat trip to St. Joe! I and the Missus and the two love birds. And I'd see to it that the chaperons kept their distance and let Nature take its course.1917, Ring Lardner, Sr., “The Water Cure”, in Gullible's Travels
  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
    • Her life is not worth living, people say; see, she is dependent on others even for food and water; let nature take its course.2005 March 27, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, “If God died for all of us, it is not ours to decide who is fit to live”, in telegraph.co.uk, retrieved 02 Sep 2010
    Synonyms:
    stand aside

Verb (2) capitalized: let Nature take its course

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. (alternative) Alternative form of let nature take its course.

Synonyms of let nature take its course

Forms of let nature take its course

third-person singular presentlets nature take its course
present participleletting nature take its course
past participlelet nature take its course
pastlet nature take its course
alternative formlet nature take her course
alternative formlet Nature take its course
third-person singular presentlets Nature take its course
present participleletting Nature take its course
past participlelet Nature take its course
pastlet Nature take its course

Questions about let nature take its course

What does let nature take its course mean?
Let nature take its course means to permit events to proceed or a situation to develop without intervention or interference.
What part of speech is let nature take its course?
Let nature take its course is a verb.
What is the past tense of let nature take its course?
The past tense of let nature take its course is let nature take its course.

Words near let nature take its course in the dictionary

  1. let loose
  2. let me count the ways
  3. let me see
  4. let me tell you
  5. let nature take her course
  6. let nature take its course
  7. let not the sun go down upon one's wrath, neither give place to the devil
  8. let off
  9. let off steam
  10. let on
  11. let one go

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: let nature 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-let nature take its course.ogg.

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