Word.ws English Dictionary

without so much as a by-your-leave

without so much as a by-your-leave is the alternative form of without so much as a by your leave.

Meaning of without so much as a by your leave

Prepositional phrase

  1. (dated) Omitting the social niceties, especially that of asking permission.
    • "What now," he said, "have the King's men respect neither for piety nor age that they burst in upon the seclusion of a holy man without so much as a 'by your leave' ?"1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Outlaw of Torn

Questions about without so much as a by-your-leave

What is without so much as a by-your-leave the alternative form of?
Without so much as a by-your-leave is the alternative form of without so much as a by your leave.

Words near without so much as a by-your-leave in the dictionary

  1. without prejudice
  2. without price
  3. without question
  4. without recourse
  5. without so much as a by your leave
  6. without so much as a by-your-leave
  7. without tea and biscuits
  8. without tears
  9. without trace
  10. without troubling the scorers
  11. without welt or guard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: without so much as a by-your-leave (page history and authors); without so much as a by your leave (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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