to get away with
672
3.5
- phrasal verb
:
salirse con la suya
- He thought he could get away with cheating on the test without anyone noticing.
- get away with murder
- allow someone to get away with
- let someone get away with
And, you know, they never let me get away with things.
- And, you know, they never let me get away with things.
- We've cleared, we've clarified that that's you can't get away with that, right.
- And you can say stuff that you might not get away with otherwise, right?
- And because you think that you can get away with not doing that, you don't bother.
- I have no idea how the he gets away with this because that's madness.
- In some ways, This is why difficult people get away with so much in the workplace.
- So that's why, yeah, if you could, if you could just get away with bluffing, maybe.
- I, I, if anything, I'm shocked with what I'm able to get away with, generally speaking.
- Well, first of all, because they keep letting the narcissists get away with everything.
- I know I didn't get away with nothing but my life.
- We might be able to get away with catching a few more, maybe.
Examples
-
The trains cleared it, so he got away with it for years.
Fiction book (1993) -
The service provider should absolutely not get away with this kind of practice.
Academic text (2017) -
And, you know, they never let me get away with things.
-
I have never ever seen anyone ever get away with anything. Even once
-
So do you feel you got away with stuff then?
-
And you can say stuff that you might not get away with otherwise, right?
-
Looks like you got away with that one.
-
What about the ones who do it and get away with it?
-
You think I'd let them get away with what they did?
-
The professor said that student athletes don't do their own work and get away with it.
Academic text (2007)
Synonyms
786
4.1
To avoid being punished for something you did wrong
462
3.8
Avoid doing a task or taking blame you should accept
234
3.4
Escape blame or punishment for doing something wrong
170
6.0
To avoid punishment for a crime or charge
20
3.9
Avoid being caught or punished for breaking rules
2
7.0
Avoid a duty or problem by making excuses
1
6.5
Receive little or no punishment for a mistake
Antonyms
How Punished
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb + particle 'get away' transparently conveys the idea of escaping, which a B1 learner who knows 'get' and 'away' can often infer, but the role of 'with' plus an object to mean escaping punishment or consequences is an extended, usage-specific development rather than strictly compositional. This semantic extension is somewhat predictable from the notion of 'escape' but relies on conventionalized syntax and pragmatic sense, so prior exposure helps.
Etymology
Get away with may come from the simple image of a person running away after doing something wrong, where get away means to escape and with shows they still have the thing they took. So, to get away with something today means to do it and 'not be caught or punished'.