What is the difference between prevent and let?
prevent | let |
To stop; to keep (from happening).
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Tom Fordyce
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland
, work=BBC Sport
* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
(obsolete) To come before; to precede.
* Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
* Book of Common Prayer
* Prior
(obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
(obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
* Alexander Pope
(label) To allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without (to)).
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*(Bible), (w) viii. 28
*:Pharaoh said, I will let you go.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:If your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is
*1971 , , (The Tombs of Atuan)
*:He could not be let die of thirst there alone in the dark.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= To leave.
:
*(Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
*:Yet neither spins nor cards, ne cares nor frets, / But to her mother Nature all her care she lets .
(label) To allow the release of (a fluid).
:
(label) To allow possession of (a property etc.) in exchange for rent.
:
(label) To give, grant, or assign, as a work, privilege, or contract; often with out .
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(label)
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To cause (+ bare infinitive).
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*:
*1818 , (John Keats), "To—":
*:Time's sea hath been five years at its slow ebb, / Long hours have to and fro let creep the sand.
(archaic) To hinder, prevent; to obstruct (someone or something).
* Bible, 2. Thessalonians ii. 7
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To prevent or obstruct (to) do something, or (that) something happen.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts VIII:
An obstacle or hindrance.
*, II.16:
*:Paulus Emilius'' going to the glorious expedition of ''Macedon'', advertised the people of ''Rome'' during his absence not to speake of his actions: ''For the licence of judgements is an especiall let in great affaires.
*Latimer
*:Consider whether your doings be to the let of your salvation or not.
(tennis) The hindrance caused by the net during serve, only if the ball falls legally.
As verbs the difference between prevent and let
is that prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening) while let is to allow to, not to prevent (+ infinitive, but usually without (to)) or let can be (archaic) to hinder, prevent; to obstruct (someone or something).As a noun let is
an obstacle or hindrance.prevent
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(en verb)- I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
citation, page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}
- ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
- We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
- Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
- With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
- their ready guilt preventing thy commands
Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* preventative * prevention * preventivelet
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) leten, .Verb
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",
- Soo within a whyle kynge Pellinore cam with a grete hoost / and salewed the peple and the kyng / and ther was grete ioye made on euery syde / Thenne the kyng lete serche how moche people of his party ther was slayne / And ther were founde but lytel past two honderd men slayne and viij kny?tes of the table round in their pauelions
Synonyms
* (to allow) allow, permitUsage notes
The use of "let" to introduce an imperative may sometimes be confused with its use, as its own imperative , in the sense of "to allow". For example, the sentence "Let me go to the store." could either be a second-person imperative of "let" (addressing someone who might prevent the speaker from going to the store) or a first-person singular imperative of "go" (not implying any such preventer).Etymology 2
(etyl) . More at late, delay.Verb
- He who now letteth' will ' let , until he be taken out of the way.
- Mine ancient wound is hardly whole, / And lets me from the saddle.
- And as they went on their waye, they cam unto a certayne water, and the gelded man sayde: Se here is water, what shall lett me to be baptised?