Scot-free

    逍遥法外     

    A: I heard Tom was in a hit-and-run accident.

    B: He has escaped and is hiding somewhere. But believe me, they will not let him go scot-free.

    Note: This term means "free from harm or penalty." "Skat" is a Scandinavian word for tax or payment and the word migrated to Britain and mutated into "scot" as the name of a redistributive taxation, levied as early the 10th century as a form of municipal poor relief. "Scot" as a term for tax has been used since then in various forms - Church scot, Rome scot, Soul scot and so on. Whatever the tax, the phrase "getting off scot free" simply refers to not paying one's taxes. The use of the figurative version of the phrase, that is, one where no actual scot tax was paid but in which someone escapes custody, began in the 16th century.