Meaning of leave someone to their own devices | Babel Free

Definitions

to leave alone, unsupervised, without assistance.

idiomatic, transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“Left to my own devices, I'll spend hours staring into space, just thinking.”

“Let's leave her to her own devices and see what she comes up with.”

“‘Forgive me,’ he said to the girl, ‘while I telephone to the Dubernes. I must arrange my rendezvous for dinner tonight. Are you sure you won't mind being left to your own devices this evening?’”

“But surely one of the most often-heard complaints this past year or so, not only from passengers and traders, but from many of these selfsame railwaymen, is that the latter are left too much to their own devices to sort out their problems as best they can; [...].”

CEFR level