to allow or give permission for someone or something to do something
My parents finally let me stay up past midnight on my birthday.
Please let the dog inside before it starts to rain.
✦ Old English lǣtan “allow, permit, leave, let go,” from Proto-Germanic *lētanan.
to allow someone to occupy or use property in return for rent; to rent out
They decided to let their spare room to a college student.
The farmhouse is let on a yearly lease to local tourists.
✦ Extension of main verbal sense, recorded from the 15th century in property law.
the old medical practice of taking blood from a patient to treat disease or restore health
In medieval times, doctors believed bloodletting could cure fever.
The king's physician ordered repeated bloodletting during the plague.
✦ Old English blōd + lettan “to let, release”; the practice dates back to ancient Greece and persisted until the 19th century.
a large and sudden reduction of employees, spending, or resources within an organization
Analysts predict more corporate bloodletting next quarter.
After the merger, marketing faced severe bloodletting.
✦ Late 20th-century figurative use, likening heavy job or budget cuts to the drastic removal of life-giving blood.
the violent killing or wounding of many people, especially during war or conflict
The civil war led to years of brutal bloodletting.
Diplomats met to stop further bloodletting after the cease-fire.
✦ Figurative extension from the literal removal of blood to describe large-scale shedding of blood in violence, first recorded in the 19th century.
