IdiomDaily Life
English
Englishgive and take
Meaning: Mutual compromise, where each side concedes something.
Example: “A long marriage runs on give and take.”
Origin: The pairing of the two opposite verbs is old; "give and take" as a noun for fair exchange is recorded in English from the 18th century, originally in horse racing for a race that handicapped horses by weight.
Equivalents in other languages
Spanish: tira y afloja Literally: Pull and loosen
More English idioms
- small potatoes Something unimportant or trivial.
- a dog's breakfast A complete mess.
- not a peep Not a sound, or not a word from someone.
- get out of hand To become impossible to control.
- a dime a dozen So common as to be worth very little.
- fire the starting gun To signal the official start of something.
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Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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