let sleeping dogs lie

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

let sleeping dogs lie (third-person singular simple present lets sleeping dogs lie, present participle letting sleeping dogs lie, simple past and past participle let sleeping dogs lie)

1. (idiomatic) To leave things as they are; especially, to avoid restarting or rekindling an old argument; to leave disagreements in the past.

   Eventually, they decided it would be best to let sleeping dogs lie and not discuss the matter any further.

   • 1868 August 29, “Sleeping Dogs”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 26, number 670, page 287:

     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.

   • 2016, Helene Becker, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Orca Book Publishers, →ISBN, page 217:

     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.

   • 2019, Kate Atkinson, Big Sky, →ISBN, page 261:

     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?

Usage notes

• This verb functions as a proverb when used in the imperative mood.

Translations

leave things as they are

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 莫惹是非 (mò rě shìfēi), 讓惹是非／让惹是非 (ràng rě shìfēi)

• Dutch: slapende honden wekt men niet
• Esperanto: ne elvoku lupon el la arbaro (literally “do not evoke a wolf from the woods”)
• Finnish: älä herätä nukkuvaa karhua
• French: il ne faut pas réveiller le chat qui dort (fr) (literally “don't wake up the sleeping cat”)
• German: schlafende Hunde weckt man nicht (literally “don't wake up sleeping dogs”)
• Hungarian: ne ébreszd fel az alvó oroszlánt (hu), ne keltsd fel az alvó oroszlánt (hu) (literally “don't wake up the sleeping lion”)
• Italian: non svegliare il can che dorme (literally “don't wake up the sleeping dog”)
• Japanese: 寝た子を起こすな (ねたこをおこすな, neta ko o okosu na), 触らぬ神に祟りなし (さわらぬかみにたたりなし, sawaranu kami ni tatari nashi, literally “if you don't touch a deity, it will not curse you”)
• Latin: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: nie rozdrapuj starych ran (literally “don't open old wounds”), nie wywołuj wilka z lasu (pl)
• Portuguese: não cutucar a onça com vara curta (literally “don't poke the jaguar with a short stick”), não cutucar a fera com vara curta, não acordar moscas que estão a dormir (literally “don't wake up the sleeping flies”), não mexer com quem está quieto, não mexer em vespeiro (literally “don't stir up a hornet's nest”)
• Russian: не буди́ ли́хо, пока́ спит ти́хо (ne budí líxo, poká spit tíxo), не буди́те спя́щую соба́ку (ne budíte spjáščuju sobáku), от греха́ пода́льше (ru) (ot grexá podálʹše)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: не дирај лава док спава

  Roman: ne diraj lava dok spava

• Spanish: no marear la perdiz (literally “don't daze the partridge”), no marear la perdiz dejar las cosas tranquilas
• Swedish: väck inte den björn som sover (literally “don't wake up the sleeping bear”)

See also

• agree to disagree
• benign neglect
• dog sleep
• hands off
• let bygones be bygones
• let it be
• let nature take its course
• sleeping giant