get away with
Idioms-
Escape the consequences or blame for, as in Bill often cheats on exams but usually gets away with it . [Late 1800s]
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get away with murder . Escape the consequences of killing someone; also, do anything one wishes. For example, If the jury doesn't convict him, he'll have gotten away with murder , or He talks all day on the phone—the supervisor is letting him get away with murder . [First half of 1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
I watched him go, debating whether I could get away with going back into my dorm and hiding in bed.
From Literature
“Like, what was this person doing? And why did they think that A, it was appropriate and B, that they would get away with it? Because they won’t.”
“You can’t get away with this. You give that stuff back to me.”
From Literature
“Now that we’ve had a good laugh,” he said, “I think it’s time we started thinking about catching those monkeys. We can’t let them get away with stealing a fellow’s britches.”
From Literature
In the wake of the revelations in the Epstein files, the former civil servant, who worked for the former UK Trade and Investment department, says he regrets that Andrew was allowed to get away with expenses for a massage, when it might have been a chance to check his behaviour.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
