live and let live

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To be tolerant; to enjoy the pleasures and opportunities which life offers and to allow others to do the same.

Pronunciation

En-au-live and let live.ogg

Word forms

live and let live lives and lets live living and letting live lived and let live

Etymology

Possibly a calque of Dutch leven en laten leven, which was mentioned by Gerard de Malynes in a 1622 book about trade law (in the then-current spelling leuen ende laeten leuen).

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.