Word.ws English Dictionary

let someone have it

let someone have it verb: to attack someone with great force.

Verb

let someone have it (third-person singular simple present lets someone have it, present participle letting someone have it, simple past and past participle let someone have it)

  1. (idiomatic) To attack someone with great force.
    • At dawn we really let 'em have it with a 30 minute artillery barrage.
    • […] purchased a heavy-duty, light-weight, stainless steel purse, complete with a flame throwers […] and a special attachment that let anyone stupid enough to make a derogatory remark about Gil's sexual persuasion have it right in the family jewels with a bronzed golf shoe.1976 August 14, Bill Russell, “Gil Hustle Comes Out”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 7, page 11
  2. (idiomatic) To verbally assail someone.
    • When I came home, he let me have it for wrecking the car.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see let, have, it.
    • When he showed me that he'd gotten the insurance certificate for our old car, I decided to let him have it.

Forms of let someone have it

third-person singular presentlets someone have it
present participleletting someone have it
past participlelet someone have it
pastlet someone have it

Questions about let someone have it

What does let someone have it mean?
Let someone have it means to attack someone with great force.
What part of speech is let someone have it?
Let someone have it is a verb.
What is the past tense of let someone have it?
The past tense of let someone have it is let someone have it.

Words near let someone have it in the dictionary

  1. let sleeping dogs lie
  2. let slide
  3. let slip
  4. let someone down gently
  5. let someone go
  6. let someone have it
  7. let someone hold
  8. let someone loose
  9. let something ride
  10. let something slip
  11. let that sink in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: let someone have it (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 someone have it.ogg.

Cite this entry: “let someone have it.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/let_someone_have_it. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.