1861. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i. He has also been good
enough to recommend to me many tradesmen ... but, with the highest
respect for friend Perkins (my scout) and his obliging friends, I
shall make some inquiries before letting in with any of them.
To let into, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attack; to beat; to abuse.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. & Lon. Poor, vol. iii. p. 148.
‘They got from six to nine months’ imprisonment; and those that let
into the police, eighteen months.’
To let off steam. See Steam.
To let on, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To betray; to admit; to seem.
1725. Ramsay [Poems (1800), ii. 100]. Let na on what’s past.
d. 1796. Burns, Last May a Braw Wooer. ‘I never loot on that I
ken’d it or car’d, But thought I might hae waur offers.’
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1st S. ch. x. ‘I’ll tell you the
secret, but you needn’t let on to no one about it.’
1838. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, 74. But a man can’t rise, after a
royal hyst, without letting on he feels flat.
1843. Major Jones’s Courtship, p. 84. The tears were runnin’ out of
my eyes; but I didn’t want to let on, for fear it would make her
feel bad.
1858. Dean Ramsay, Reminiscences. I saw Mr. —— at the meeting, but
I never let on that I knew he was present.
1860. Boucicault, Colleen Bawn, i. 3. Don’t let on to mortal that
we’re married.
1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv. p. 38 (1873). ‘Never let
on that he didn’t know what it was; never changed a muscle of his
face.’
1871. Binghamton Journal, April [quoted by De Vere]. ‘Although the
visitors, the gentlemanly keeper, and the prison-chaplain, all
tried in every conceivable way to induce him to make a confession,
he would never let on how the murder was committed, and all agree
that Ruloff is the greatest mystery of the age.’
1879. Justin Mc. Carthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxiii. ‘I knew it,
though she wouldn’t let on even to me.’
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xi. He let on once to
me—that he was awfully cut up about my changing.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, 52. ’Arry never let on to them Swiss
as he felt on the swivel,—no fear!
To let oneself loose, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To speak, or launch out,
without restraint.
To let out, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To disclose.
1878. Beadle, Western Scenes. ‘You bile the pot, and when I have
had a smoke I’ll let out, but not afore.’