Timeline for What is the idiom, expression or proverb for 'If you let them use you once they will use you for life'?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
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| Nov 2, 2022 at 12:02 | history | edited | Colm | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Clarified use of shortened phrase in response to comments
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| Sep 17, 2018 at 23:20 | comment | added | jpmc26 | Answer is correct, but first example does not exemplify the saying in full. | |
| Sep 17, 2018 at 14:38 | comment | added | Richard Ward | @Fattie I have never come across the limitation of it only ever referring to a single event. It can refer to a single event, sure, but it's not limited to just meaning that. | |
| Sep 17, 2018 at 13:54 | comment | added | Edheldil | @Fattie - I doubt that #2 fits, much less better - it's an idiom about an action amplification, not necessarily st. bad, is not it? Could you say "Publishing magazine email address opened floodgate to readers' submissions and reviews"? Whereas #1 contains the element of exploiting someone's goodwill, like in OP question. | |
| Sep 16, 2018 at 9:14 | comment | added | Fattie | The long trivial, side-issue, comments here are irrelevant and should be deleted. Thanks in advance for doing that promptly. While this idiom is in the general region of the OP's question, it's not really the same. | |
| Sep 15, 2018 at 19:07 | comment | added | Richard Ward | @Chieron The taking of 'a mile' does not necessarily refer to a single event. The giving of an inch might be just lending a teabag when the office caddy is empty. A couple of days later, they come back to ask for another; you didn't mind last time, after all. Pretty soon, you're supplying the whole building with tea - they've taken a mile. | |
| S Sep 15, 2018 at 8:53 | history | suggested | robert bristow-johnson | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
I think the subject was missing in the statement.
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| Sep 15, 2018 at 7:51 | comment | added | Chieron | How does #1 fit here? The Indian expression means that getting taken advantage of once will mean that you will always be used (by appealing to precedent or by becoming a default weak target). You've shown your weakness and it will be exploited. The important aspect is the setting of a precedent. #1 rather refers to a singular event - you offer help / yield a small point, but they take you by surprise and you have to do much more. #2 fits much better - though it still has more of an active component on your side (you are actively opening the gates, not necessarily under pressure). | |
| Sep 15, 2018 at 1:25 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Sep 15, 2018 at 8:53 | |||||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 22:30 | vote | accept | AMN | ||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 16:38 | comment | added | WGroleau | @Spratty: perhaps you lot are just nicer. Most Americans would definitely take the whole mile if they had the chance. Not me though. I’d just take a kilometer. | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 15:25 | comment | added | Spratty | @AndyT - For full disclosure I'm from Essex (I can actually see Kent from the sea-shore a few minutes' walk from my house). | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 15:23 | comment | added | Colm | @KR that's an interesting observation. I had always assumed that one derived from the other but not necessarily I suppose. I wanted to add usage context in the example whilst keeping it short. In truth, the phrase is a complete sentence on its own. | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 15:17 | comment | added | AndyT | @Spratty - It'd have to be more a more specific region than "SE England". I grew up in Kent and I've never heard your version. | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 14:59 | comment | added | KRyan | Your example for #1 doesn’t actually use it? And merely “give an inch” is not necessarily an allusion to someone taking a mile: in your expectation, I would presume that John objected to even the inch, rather than being concerned about them then taking the mile. | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 14:40 | comment | added | Spratty | British English here - for #1 the most common version I've heard spoken is "give them and inch and they'll take a yard", but that may be regional (SE England). | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 14:17 | comment | added | UnhandledExcepSean | American here: #1 is definitely the phrase I most commonly would use or hear. | |
| Sep 14, 2018 at 13:40 | vote | accept | AMN | ||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 13:40 | |||||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 13:07 | history | edited | user 66974 | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 116 characters in body
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| Sep 14, 2018 at 12:05 | review | First posts | |||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 12:24 | |||||
| Sep 14, 2018 at 12:00 | history | answered | Colm | CC BY-SA 4.0 |