See heads I win, tails you lose on Wiktionary
{ "etymology_text": "A slight twist on the normal convention when flipping a coin, which is heads I win, tails you win. The flurry of antonymic reversals — heads or tails, you or me, win or lose — sounds euphonious and might seem fair when first analyzing it, which makes the phrase suitable for a fast-talking confidence trick except to the extent that it has become hackneyed and synonymous with rigged arrangements.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "en", "2": "phrase" }, "expansion": "heads I win, tails you lose", "name": "head" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "phrase", "senses": [ { "categories": [ { "kind": "other", "name": "English entries with incorrect language header", "parents": [ "Entries with incorrect language header", "Entry maintenance" ], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with 1 entry", "parents": [], "source": "w" }, { "kind": "other", "name": "Pages with entries", "parents": [], "source": "w" } ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1790, Sir David Dalrymple, The Little Freeholder, a Dramatic Entertainment, in Two Acts, page 31:", "text": "I suppose it is just as if he had said to me, \"Heads I win, tails you lose.\" I thought that it was against law; but this man, Lord they call him, quieted me with his reciprocity.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "1922, Jim Tully, Emmett Lawler, page 163:", "text": "I'll flip a coin, heads I win, tails you lose—and the loser must tell a story", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2011, Christopher Hitchens, Arguably: Selected Essays, page 14:", "text": "So here was an early instance of the \"heads I win, tails you lose\" dilemma, in which the United States is faced with corrupt regimes, on the one hand, and Islamic militants, on the other—or indeed a collusion between them.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Said to describe a conflict in which someone has a particular advantage from the start." ], "id": "en-heads_I_win,_tails_you_lose-en-phrase-HNV8K17N", "links": [ [ "conflict", "conflict#English" ], [ "advantage", "advantage#English" ], [ "from the start", "from the start#English" ] ], "related": [ { "word": "lose-lose" }, { "word": "moral hazard" } ] } ], "word": "heads I win, tails you lose" }
{ "etymology_text": "A slight twist on the normal convention when flipping a coin, which is heads I win, tails you win. The flurry of antonymic reversals — heads or tails, you or me, win or lose — sounds euphonious and might seem fair when first analyzing it, which makes the phrase suitable for a fast-talking confidence trick except to the extent that it has become hackneyed and synonymous with rigged arrangements.", "head_templates": [ { "args": { "1": "en", "2": "phrase" }, "expansion": "heads I win, tails you lose", "name": "head" } ], "lang": "English", "lang_code": "en", "pos": "phrase", "related": [ { "word": "lose-lose" }, { "word": "moral hazard" } ], "senses": [ { "categories": [ "English entries with incorrect language header", "English lemmas", "English multiword terms", "English phrases", "English terms with quotations", "Pages with 1 entry", "Pages with entries", "Quotation templates to be cleaned" ], "examples": [ { "ref": "1790, Sir David Dalrymple, The Little Freeholder, a Dramatic Entertainment, in Two Acts, page 31:", "text": "I suppose it is just as if he had said to me, \"Heads I win, tails you lose.\" I thought that it was against law; but this man, Lord they call him, quieted me with his reciprocity.", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "1922, Jim Tully, Emmett Lawler, page 163:", "text": "I'll flip a coin, heads I win, tails you lose—and the loser must tell a story", "type": "quote" }, { "ref": "2011, Christopher Hitchens, Arguably: Selected Essays, page 14:", "text": "So here was an early instance of the \"heads I win, tails you lose\" dilemma, in which the United States is faced with corrupt regimes, on the one hand, and Islamic militants, on the other—or indeed a collusion between them.", "type": "quote" } ], "glosses": [ "Said to describe a conflict in which someone has a particular advantage from the start." ], "links": [ [ "conflict", "conflict#English" ], [ "advantage", "advantage#English" ], [ "from the start", "from the start#English" ] ] } ], "word": "heads I win, tails you lose" }
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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