English · Proverb Attested

let bygones be bygones

In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

Forgive and forget past offences.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Tha thứ và quên đi những tội lỗi trong quá khứ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

Er we've all got to be friends in a situation let bygones be bygones sort of.

Although the book ended on a positive note in that the enemy's group leader tried to let bygones be bygones.

British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)

Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).

Common questions

What does “let bygones be bygones” mean?

Forgive and forget past offences.

Is “let bygones be bygones” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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