let's not and say we did
- idiom
- Informal
:
no lo hagamos y digamos que lo hicimos
- I don't want to clean the house today. Let's not and say we did.
Examples
-
When my friends suggested skydiving, I said, let's not and say we did!
-
When my friends wanted to clean the garage, I joked, 'let's not and say we did.'
-
She suggested we go hiking in the rain, so I said, 'let's not and say we did.'
-
Whenever someone proposes something boring, he always replies, 'let's not and say we did.'
-
When my friends wanted to clean the garage, I joked, 'let's not and say we did.'
-
She suggested we go hiking in the rain, so I said, 'let's not and say we did.'
-
Whenever someone proposes something boring, he always replies, 'let's not and say we did.'
Synonyms
459
7.7
A casual spoken way to say no
1
8.1
A firm no when someone asks for something
Antonyms
How Willing
1
1.5
14
3.1
272
3.4
- Informal
- Informal
459
7.7
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
let's + not + and + say + we + do
The phrase literally combines 'let's' + 'not' + 'and' + 'say' + 'we' + 'did' to instruct people not to do something and instead claim they did it, so the core meaning is compositionally recoverable from the parts. However, the item relies on pragmatic inference (ironical/humorous refusal, ellipsis of the omitted verb) and a fixed colloquial formula, so a B1 learner may not reliably infer the intended joking refusal without prior exposure.
Etymology
Let's not and say we did is a joking way to avoid a task: people imagine choosing let's not and then simply say we did so everyone pretends the job is finished. That's why the phrase is used to 'refuse' or lightly avoid doing something.