Dictionary

let sleeping dogs lie en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Attestations exist from the 1820s and 1830s. Earlier ones may be discoverable with better corpus searches. The metaphor is self-evident and is typical of folk wisdom. To choose to pass by a sleeping dog without stirring it is comparable to letting a hornets' nest or beehive be, not poking a bear, and so on.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past.
   • A: I noticed a minor typo in the proofs just now, but I think they're already doing the make-ready on the press. B: Time to let sleeping dogs lie then.
   • Crystal might have said that those perfect lips were zipped, but the kidnappers had no way of knowing that. Should he let sleeping dogs lie? 2019, Kate Atkinson, Big Sky, →ISBN, page 261:
   • 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
   • Eventually, they decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not discuss the matter any further.
   • Sometimes you just had to let stuff go. Endlessly rehashing old hurts just made things worse. It was far better, I'd learned, to let sleeping dogs lie. 2016, Helene Becker, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Orca Book Publishers, →ISBN, page 217:
   • But, leaving novelists alone, on the whole we find in real life that if speech is silvern, silence is essentially golden, and that more harm is done by saying too much than by saying too little; above all, that infinite mischief arises by not letting sleeping dogs lie. 1868 August 29, “Sleeping Dogs”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 26, number 670, page 287:

Forms

Relateds

let the sleeping dogs lie · sleeping giant · dog sleep · hands off · agree to disagree · lie doggo · dogsleep · benign neglect · let a sleeping dog lie

Synonyms

let it be · let bygones be bygones · let nature take its course · leave things be · leave it alone · leave things alone · leave it be · let things alone · let it alone · let things be

Translations (29)

pt não mexer em vespeiro (leave things as they are) · pl nie wywołuj wilka z lasu (leave things as they are) · hu ne ébreszd fel az alvó oroszlánt (leave things as they are) · pt não mexer com quem está quieto (leave things as they are) · nl slapende honden wekt men niet (leave things as they are) · eo ne elvoku lupon el la arbaro (leave things as they are) · sh не дирај лава док спава (leave things as they are) · cs nepíchej do vosího hnízda (leave things as they are) · sv inte väcka den björn som sover (leave things as they are) · ja 触らぬ神に祟りなし (leave things as they are) · is ekki vekja upp draug (leave things as they are) · fr il ne faut pas réveiller le chat qui dort (leave things as they are) · pt não acordar moscas que estão a dormir (leave things as they are) · ru от греха́ пода́льше (leave things as they are) · ga ná hoscail doras na hiaróige (leave things as they are) · fi älä herätä nukkuvaa karhua (leave things as they are) · ru не буди́ ли́хо, пока́ спит ти́хо (leave things as they are) · de schlafende Hunde weckt man nicht (leave things as they are) · cmn 讓惹是非 /让惹是非 (leave things as they are) · it non svegliare il can che dorme (leave things as they are) · cmn 莫惹是非 (leave things as they are) · es no marear la perdiz dejar las cosas tranquilas (leave things as they are) · es no marear la perdiz (leave things as they are) · pl nie rozdrapuj starych ran (leave things as they are) · pt não cutucar a fera com vara curta (leave things as they are) · pt não cutucar a onça com vara curta (leave things as they are) · ja 寝た子を起こすな (leave things as they are) · ru не буди́те спя́щую соба́ку (leave things as they are) · sh ne diraj lava dok spava (leave things as they are)