IdiomDaily Life
English
Englishyou can't win them all
Meaning: Said to console someone after a small failure.
Example: “The cake sank in the middle, but you can't win them all.”
Origin: A shrug borrowed from sport, where no team wins every game. The phrase is American from the mid-20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
Italian: Non tutte le ciambelle riescono col buco Literally: Not all donuts come out with a hole
More English idioms
- smell a rat To sense that something dishonest is going on.
- a hard nut to crack A difficult problem, or a person who is hard to deal with.
- have a finger in every pie To be involved in many different things at once.
- have a bee in one's bonnet To be obsessed with one idea.
- put down roots To settle somewhere permanently.
- start off on the wrong foot To begin something badly.
Explore another collection: Proverbs
Short sayings of timeless wisdom from more than 50 cultures, each with its meaning and origin.
- The more noble the more humble. Greater virtue requires deeper humility, as true excellence recognizes its own limitation…
- The great Homer himself sometimes nods. Even the most skilled and accomplished people occasionally make mistakes or lose focus.
- It is the part of a wise man to take no notice of many things. Selective attention to trivial matters preserves mental energy for what genuinely demands…
Keep exploring