# let sleeping dogs lie

> English word · Verb

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

## Etymology
Attestations exist from the 1820s and 1830s. Earlier ones may be discoverable with better corpus searches. The metaphor is self-evident and is typical of folk wisdom. To choose to pass by a sleeping dog without stirring it is comparable to letting a hornets' nest or beehive be, not poking a bear, and so on.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/let-sleeping-dogs-lie