Word.ws English Dictionary

letting sleeping dogs lie

letting sleeping dogs lie is the present participle and gerund of let sleeping dogs lie.

Meaning of let sleeping dogs lie

Verb

let sleeping dogs lie (third-person singular simple present lets sleeping dogs lie, present participle letting sleeping dogs lie, simple past and past participle let sleeping dogs lie)

  1. (idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past.
    • Near-synonyms: let it be, leave it be, let things be, leave things be, let it alone, leave it alone, let things alone, leave things alone; let bygones be bygones, let nature take its course

Questions about letting sleeping dogs lie

What is letting sleeping dogs lie the present participle and gerund of?
Letting sleeping dogs lie is the present participle and gerund of let sleeping dogs lie.

Words near letting sleeping dogs lie in the dictionary

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

Source and license

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