to let's have it
3
8.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
dímelo
- At the meeting, the manager said, "All right, let's have it—I want to hear your ideas."
- right, let's have it
- Now let's have it
- All right, let's have it
Examples
-
Okay, let's have it.
-
Well, let's have it.
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All right, let's have it.
-
Come on, let's have it.
-
- Well, let's have it.
-
Come on, let's have it.
-
Now, let's have it, my love.
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Let's have it. - Have what? - Your report.
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Let's have it, whatever it is.
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If that's what you want, let's have it out now!
Synonyms
3
7.4
To ask someone what they are thinking when they have been silent
To ask someone if they agree or what they think
Antonyms
How Direct
- Informal
15
4.4
- Informal
3
8.2
- Informal
135
3.1
4
4.1
4
3.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
let's + have + it
The phrase literally parses as 'let us' + 'have it', so a learner who knows 'let's' and 'have' can infer a permissive request to 'receive' or 'take' something, giving a partial clue to the meaning. However, the conversational use 'Come on, let's have it!' meaning 'tell us/express what you think' relies on pragmatic inference and an idiomatic speech-act that is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent to B1 learners.
Etymology
Let's have it comes from the idea of asking someone to give something to the group. Imagine a person holding a paper or an idea and you say let's have it to mean 'give it to us', so the phrase now means 'say what you are thinking'.