Word.ws English Dictionary

letting out

letting out is the present participle and gerund of let out.

Meaning of let out

Verb

let out (third-person singular simple present lets out, present participle letting out, simple past and past participle let out)

  1. (transitive) To release.
    • The students were let out of school early.
  2. (Canada, US, intransitive) Of a school: to finish for the day or term, allowing the pupils to go home.
    • We're gonna have practice tomorrow morning for an assembly we're giving on Thursday before school lets out for Easter.1999, Laura Beckham, A Bad Seed: And Other Stories, page 47
  3. To allow to operate at higher speed by adjusting controls.
    • He let out the reins when they were a mile from the barn.
  4. To rent out.
    • We let out the house and went on a two-year world trip.
  5. To enlarge by adjusting one or more seams.
    • After the holidays he had to have his suits let out.
    Antonyms:
    take in
  6. (informal) Of sound, to emit.
    • The dog let out a yelp.

See all 9 meanings of let out

Questions about letting out

What is letting out the present participle and gerund of?
Letting out is the present participle and gerund of let out.

Words near letting out in the dictionary

  1. letting one off
  2. letting one's guard down
  3. letting one's hair down
  4. letting one's nuts hang
  5. letting oneself go
  6. letting out
  7. letting past
  8. letting sleeping dogs lie
  9. letting slide
  10. letting slip
  11. letting someone down gently

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: letting out (page history and authors); let out (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: “letting out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/letting_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.