let slip
Idioms-
Also, ; let slide . Miss an opportunity; waste time. For example, We forgot to buy a ticket and let our big chance slip by , or He let the whole day slide by . The first term dates from the mid-1500s, the variant from the late 1500s.
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Also, let slip out . Reveal something, usually inadvertently, as in He let it slip out that he had applied for the vacant position . [Mid-1800s]
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let slip through one's fingers . Fail to seize an opportunity, as in We could have won the trophy but we let it slip through our fingers . [First half of 1600s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Of course there was the cellar debacle, but Grandma Star also sends her books about Native history and culture and let slip that Mom used a tribal scholarship for grad school.
From Literature
Guess then let slip that he knew about the messaging by talking about the account.
From BBC
Great Britain's joyless start to the Winter Paralympics continued as wheelchair curlers Jo Butterfield and Jason Kean let slip their grasp on the mixed doubles semi-finals and missed out on qualifying.
From BBC
All the while, SpaceX apparently let slip its obligations to NASA’s moon effort.
On one occasion, after Mansfield had been diagnosed with tuberculosis and fled to the French Riviera in an attempt to heal, Murry let slip that he had discussed setting up home with his mistress, the aristocratic Dorothy Brett.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
