"offer one can't refuse" meaning in English

See offer one can't refuse in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: en-au-an offer one can't refuse.ogg Forms: offers one can't refuse [plural]
Etymology: Unknown. A famous example is found in the film The Godfather (1972). Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown Head templates: {{en-noun|offers one can't refuse}} offer one can't refuse (plural offers one can't refuse)
  1. (idiomatic) An offer from one side in a transaction with terms so attractive that the other side is almost guaranteed to accept. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-offer_one_can't_refuse-en-noun-VTQcJKyZ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 57 43 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 65 35 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 78 22
  2. (idiomatic) A threatening offer by one party for which the results of failing to accept are so unattractive that the other party is almost compelled to accept. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms (threat): extortion
    Sense id: en-offer_one_can't_refuse-en-noun-P2P9o7zl Disambiguation of 'threat': 27 73

Inflected forms

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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006 February 5, Michael D. Lemonick, “Are We Losing Our Edge?”, in Time:",
          "text": "But in 2001 the government of Singapore made him an offer he couldn't refuse: the directorship of the brand new Genome Institute along with a $25 million starting budget.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An offer from one side in a transaction with terms so attractive that the other side is almost guaranteed to accept."
      ],
      "id": "en-offer_one_can't_refuse-en-noun-VTQcJKyZ",
      "links": [
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        [
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          "guaranteed"
        ]
      ],
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        "(idiomatic) An offer from one side in a transaction with terms so attractive that the other side is almost guaranteed to accept."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
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    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1991 September 22, Edward Rothstein, “Film: Hard Up for a Plot? Get With the Program”, in New York Times, retrieved 2012-07-29:",
          "text": "The Mafia godfather Rocco . . . makes Jack an offer he can't refuse: marry Carol or else.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
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        "A threatening offer by one party for which the results of failing to accept are so unattractive that the other party is almost compelled to accept."
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        "(idiomatic) A threatening offer by one party for which the results of failing to accept are so unattractive that the other party is almost compelled to accept."
      ],
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          "_dis1": "27 73",
          "sense": "threat",
          "word": "extortion"
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          "ref": "2006 February 5, Michael D. Lemonick, “Are We Losing Our Edge?”, in Time:",
          "text": "But in 2001 the government of Singapore made him an offer he couldn't refuse: the directorship of the brand new Genome Institute along with a $25 million starting budget.",
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      ],
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        "An offer from one side in a transaction with terms so attractive that the other side is almost guaranteed to accept."
      ],
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        [
          "attractive",
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        "(idiomatic) An offer from one side in a transaction with terms so attractive that the other side is almost guaranteed to accept."
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        "idiomatic"
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          "text": "The Mafia godfather Rocco . . . makes Jack an offer he can't refuse: marry Carol or else.",
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      ],
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        "A threatening offer by one party for which the results of failing to accept are so unattractive that the other party is almost compelled to accept."
      ],
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        "(idiomatic) A threatening offer by one party for which the results of failing to accept are so unattractive that the other party is almost compelled to accept."
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      "sense": "threat",
      "word": "extortion"
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  "word": "offer one can't refuse"
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Download raw JSONL data for offer one can't refuse meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-02-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-02 using wiktextract (f90d964 and 9dbd323). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.