sublet
Americanverb (used with object)
-
sublets,
present (3rd person singular)
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sublet,
past participle, past
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subletting
present participle
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to sublease.
-
to let under a subcontract.
to sublet work.
noun
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sublets
plural
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a sublease.
-
a property obtained by subleasing, as an apartment.
verb
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to grant a sublease of (property)
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to let out (work, etc) under a subcontract
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subletsimple
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subletssimple
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have subletperfect
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has subletperfect
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am sublettingprogressive
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are sublettingprogressive
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is sublettingprogressive
-
have been sublettingperfect progressive
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has been sublettingperfect progressive
Past
-
subletsimple
-
had subletperfect
-
was sublettingprogressive
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were sublettingprogressive
-
had been sublettingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sublet
Explanation
When you rent an apartment by taking over another person's lease, instead of renting directly from a landlord, you sublet. You can also say the person sublets the apartment to you. As a noun, sublet refers both to the lease agreement and to the property itself: "I'm living in a tiny sublet right next to the train tracks." The formal, legal word for this is sublease, but it's more common for renters to use the informal sublet instead. Being able to sublet to another person makes it possible for a renter to leave an apartment without breaking their lease.
Vocabulary lists containing sublet
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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.
See Examples For:
The state intends to sublet space to startups that might not have the wherewithal to commit to long-term leases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
Northern California, where she grew up, offers less hectic living, with family nearby and a proper house rather than an illegal basement sublet.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
The BBC contacted the businessman who rented the property, who says he had sublet it to a builder.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
On the one hand, you did promise working internet when you agreed to sublet to them.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 11, 2025
He’d come back to Chicago over his summer break from Harvard, this time skipping the sublet and moving directly into my apartment on Euclid Avenue.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Listings Projects, a classified newsletter featuring sublets in New York City, Los Angeles and others creative hubs , is one of the systems that seems poised to grow.
From Slate ● Sep. 13, 2023
She was inspired by Sam Farrazaino who established Equinox Studios, converting a 30,000-square-foot former factory to sublets for working artisans in Seattle’s Georgetown in 2006.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2022
“This guy doesn’t look like he has $15. Look at him! Millions of dollars? He looks like he sublets from Oscar the Grouch.”
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
Positive absorption indicates that more space was leased than was newly built or put on the market through sublets.
From Reuters ● Aug. 1, 2022
When next I move may it be straight through to glory, where the lease is long and the landlord never sublets.
From Rosemary and Rue by Amber
I’m subletting my apartment in Boulder, Colo., for one year while I’m living in San Diego.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 11, 2025
A company representing the property owner later told us that the tenancy agreement "expressly forbids" subletting and multiple occupancy and that the property had never been let or advertised for those purposes.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2025
This can protect you whether you’re a homeowner renting out a spare room or a renter subletting from someone else.
From Salon ● Jan. 2, 2025
Neither the subletting nor the storage of flammable materials was legal under the Caltrans lease, but the agency failed time and again to enforce it own rules, the report found.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2024
He was living in Hyde Park, subletting an apartment from a friend.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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.
