Jeffrey Moore, Prisoner in a Red-Rose Chain (1999) uses both expressions in the same sentence: The other relevant idiomatic phrase, which has much the same sense as "quit while you're behind," is cut losses. Ask a few questions if you have to, but add nothing new to stir up significant recross. On the other hand, if your witness cratered on the stand-was so bad it's doubtful redirect can help her- quit while you're behind. SynonymsEdit the biter is sometimes bitten (.
#Digging themselves in deeper synonym trial
This is usually a mistake (it's better to quit while you're behind, than compound your failures), but for once we had a real run of luck, and managed a double-header.Īnd from David Berg, The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes to Win (2006): Someone that plans harm or misfortune for others may also inadvertently be the recipient of that same misfortune. synonyms for diplomatic Compare Synonyms conciliatory gracious.
Kit said he was getting bored with the low strike-rate, so we decided to roll the fishing grounds for just two more days before packing it in. Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples. The expression also appears in David Profumo, The Weather in Iceland (1993) : Maya Angelou, born in 1928, lived through some of the worst oppression and inequality for African American people. It encourages readers to love themselves fully and persevere in the face of every hardship. "The trouble with Hubert Humphrey is that he probably won't quit while he's behind, or enjoy the pleasures of defeat, He will rest for a few weeks and then get back in the political battle. ‘Still I Rise’ is an inspiring and emotional poem that’s based around Maya Angelou’s experiences as a Black woman in America. Within fifty years, however, people had begun occasionally using a variation on this expression that comes much closer to the sense that the posted question requires: quit while behind, meaning to stop making things worse by continuing to pursue a losing or failing course of action.įor example, from Ohio AFL-CIO, News and Views (1968), quoting a column by James Reston in the New York Times that was reprinted in the Columbus Citizen-Journal on Novem: 'Quit while you're ahead, you cheap skates!'" Doran) 245: "'That's right!' growls Sam Horgan, who was down on the floor with the dice. Van Loan, Score by Innings (New York: George H.
Also see LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE.Īccording to Charles Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder & Fred Shapiro, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012), the expression "quit while you're ahead" goes back only to 1919:ġ919 Charles E. This idiom also implies that further action runs the risk of spoiling something. Quit while one's ahead Don't try to improve on something that is already accomplished, as in Those drapes we hung are even enough-let's quit while we're ahead. In Chinese, the saying can be literally translated to Giving a man a fish is not equal to teaching a man to fish.
#Digging themselves in deeper synonym how to
I offer two idioms for your consideration: quit while behind and cut losses.īut first, let's look at the more traditional phrase "quit while ahead." Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) has this entry for that phrase: English translation: This is a very well-known proverb, meaning that it’s much more effective to teach someone how to do something for themselves than to simply do it for them in the long-term.
0 kommentar(er)
