sublet
Americanverb (used with object)
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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.
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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
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have been sublettingperfect progressive
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has been sublettingperfect progressive
Past
-
subletsimple
-
had subletperfect
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was sublettingprogressive
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were sublettingprogressive
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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:
“When you sublet your judgment about facts and morals to a rigid ideology, you really surrender your ability to make real moral judgments, and also to make real factual judgments.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
A leaseholder and member of the Social Housing Action Campaign, she believes one social housing flat has been illegally sublet as short-term accommodation.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
A friend will sublet my apartment starting in October.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 29, 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
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
Positive absorption indicates that more space was leased than was newly built or put on the market through sublets.
From Reuters ● Aug. 1, 2022
She sublets the apartment, and, as is the way of folks with less money, maybe especially queer friends, ends up living there with two other people.
From Salon ● Feb. 19, 2022
Course, we get all kinds in our buildin'; but when the lady voice culturist on the top floor sublets her studio for the summer to this freak I thought we'd gone from bad to worse.
From Shorty McCabe on the Job by Sewell Ford
Nicholas Razo, Santa Fe Springs’ assistant city manager, told The Times that the city had raised concerns with the league about subletting and took action after learning the practice was continuing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Nicholas Razo, assistant city manager, said in a phone interview that the city had previously raised concerns with the league about subletting and took action after learning the practice was continuing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
Local councils and Airbnb have begun sharing data to identify the illegal subletting of social homes on the short-term rental platform.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
That’s a baseline for subletting an apartment, if the rent includes internet.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 11, 2025
He was living in Hyde Park, subletting an apartment from a friend.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
