let alone

let alone

1. verb To stop bothering someone or something. A noun or pronoun can be used between "let" and "alone." Why do you keep picking at that scab on your knee? Let it alone already! For the last time, let your brother alone—he needs to study!
2. expression Not to mention. The phrase is used to emphasize that if other more significant or pressing things are not possible or cannot be accommodated, a lesser thing certainly is not or cannot either. I hardly had time to brush my teeth this morning, let alone do my hair! We can't afford a vacation, let alone a trip to Disney World.
See also: alone, let
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

let someone or something alone

 and leave someone or something alone; leave someone or something be
to avoid touching, bothering, or communicating with someone or something. Leave me alone. I don't want your help. Let it alone! Don't touch it! It may be hot!
See also: alone, let

let alone someone or something

not to mention or think of someone or something; not even to take someone or something into account. (Fixed order.) Do I have a dollar? I don't even have a dime, let alone a dollar. I didn't invite John, let alone the rest of his family.
See also: alone, let
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

let alone

1. See leave someone alone.
2. Not to mention, as in We have no room for another house guest, let alone an entire family. [c. 1800]
See also: alone, let
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

let aˈlone

used after a statement to emphasize that because the first thing is not true or possible, the next thing cannot be true or possible either: I wouldn’t speak to him, let alone trust him or lend him money. She didn’t even apologize, let alone offer to pay for the damage.
See also: alone, let
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

let alone

Not to mention; much less: "Their ancestors had been dirt poor and never saw royalty, let alone hung around with them" (Garrison Keillor).
See also: alone, let
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • not do (someone or oneself) any favors
  • load in
  • rescue from
  • rescue from (someone or something)
  • identify with
  • attune to
  • ask back
  • orient
  • orient to
  • orient to (something)
References in periodicals archive
Many logjams, rice bowls, and stovepipes of today are not going to survive the first wave of GenNet, let alone the waves that follow.
Make room for Generation Net: a cultural imperative
This issue of Academic Exchange Quarterly offers several articles devoted to practical and theoretical experiences, methods, and assessments that enable the teaching of the novel and short fiction to be a genuinely meaningful and effective educational experience for students and instructors--especially in an age when requiring 100-150 pages of reading a week is considered by many in the profession to be too much for students who attempt to read fiction in English, let alone who face the challenges of being able to read and analyze it in a foreign language.
Teaching the novel and short fiction
But then, just as now, people outside of this industry have no idea that there is a difference between synthetic and natural rubber, let alone SBR and FKM.
Timing. (Editorial)
Many outside observers thought the IRS believed it lacked the authority to raise the exclusion threshold to as high as $5 million, let alone $10 million.
Use of cash method by small businesses: notice 2001-76 introduced new rules to simplify use of the cash method for qualifying small businesses with average gross receipts of $10 million or less
The Wahnapitae community does not even have phone services, let alone high-speed Internet connections.
Phone service, internet access explored
It would be a long journey from such individual contacts to building better relations between different religious and ethnic groups, let alone nations, but, as the proverb says, `The longest journey starts with the first step.'
A day for reaching out
Agents and brokers will be left to explain to clients why they can't find a market, let alone something they can afford," Rusbauldt said.
A Hard Landing: The Sept. 11 catastrophe accelerated the industry's movement into a hard market, leaving it with challenges in underwriting and customer relationships. (Industry Strategies)
"I can't keep my own diet going, let alone someone else's," says Diane Lindquist, whose daughter attends Van Hoosen.
Should schools ban peanut butter? (Debate)
"Let's face it: an e-mail message from a company you've never done business with stands little chance of being read, let alone passed along to your circle of friends.
Harvard Management Update offers contradictory advice
Such a rapid depreciation, even of only 20-25 percent a la 1971-73, let alone 50 percent or more as in 1985-87, could ignite an acceleration of price pressures despite the economic slowdown and reverse the fall in interest rates that is so crucial for achieving sustainable recovery.
Strong Dollar, Weak Policy
Until 1995, the 54-year-old former president of Bolivia's House of Deputies, didn't know how to turn on a computer let alone create a web company.
BOLIVIA
A review of research suggests that a Zone diet could not support a competitive athlete's nutritional demands, let alone enhance athletic performance.
Zone Diet not for athletes or anyone
That's not to say that we want to go back to the days of paste-up boards, let alone manual typewriters--complete with carbon copies and white-out (remember those?).
The Tech Files
The word "storage" carries neither style nor substance, let alone sizzle.
20 Years of Storage
From this perspective, far from being a theorist (let alone an ideologue), Selden was a practical politician who could find "little place for .
Discourse on History, Law, and Governance in the Public Career of John Selden: 1610-1635