"you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" meaning in English

See you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: 1796 in English, from French, on ne saurait faire d’omelette sans casser des œufs (1742 and earlier), attributed to François de Charette. Etymology templates: {{uder|en|fr|-}} French Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
  1. In order to achieve something, it is inevitable and necessary that some mistakes are made or some sacrifices must occur. Wikipedia link: François de Charette Synonyms: you've got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette Related terms: a revolution is not a dinner party, collateral damage, no pain, no gain, side effect, the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet, there's no such thing as a free lunch, unintended consequence, you don't get something for nothing Translations (phrase): 天下沒有白吃的午餐 (Chinese Mandarin), 天下没有白吃的午餐 (tiānxià méiyǒu báichī de wǔcān) (english: there is no such thing as free lunch) (Chinese Mandarin), 有得必有失; 有失才有得 (english: you gain some and you lose some) (Chinese Mandarin), když se kácí les, létají třísky (Czech), hvor der handles, der spildes (Danish), waar gehakt wordt vallen spaanders (Dutch), munakasta ei voi tehdä rikkomatta munia (Finnish), on ne fait pas d’omelette sans casser des œufs (english: one doesn't make an omelette without breaking eggs) (French), on ne saurait faire d’omelette sans casser des œufs (French), wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne (German), αν δεν βρέξεις κώλο, ψάρι δεν τρως (an den vréxeis kólo, psári den tros) (Greek), csak az nem hibázik, aki nem dolgozik (Hungarian), ahol fát vágnak, ott hullik a forgács (Hungarian), áldozat nélkül nincs győzelem (Hungarian), non si può fare una frittata senza rompere le uova (Italian), 蒔かぬ種は生えぬ (makanu tane wa haenu) (english: seeds that aren't planted won't grow) (alt: まかぬたねははえぬ) (Japanese), det må knuses noen egg for å lage en omelett (Norwegian), املای نانوشته غلط ندارد (emlâ-ye nâ-nevešte ğalat nadârad) (Persian), nie można mieć ciastka i zjeść ciastko (Polish), gdzie drwa rąbią, tam wióry lecą (Polish), não se pode fazer omelete sem quebrar os ovos (Portuguese), keď sa rúbe les, lietajú triesky (Slovak), nada que valga la pena se logra sin crear conflictos (english: nothing is worth the effort without stirring up conflicts) (Spanish), no se puede hacer una tortilla sin romper los huevos (english: you can't make a tortilla without breaking the eggs) (Spanish), quien quiera peces, que moje el culo (english: Whoever wants some fish must get his/her arse wet) (Spanish)

Alternative forms

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          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "天下沒有白吃的午餐"
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          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne"
        },
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          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "an den vréxeis kólo, psári den tros",
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          "word": "αν δεν βρέξεις κώλο, ψάρι δεν τρως"
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          "sense": "phrase",
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          "sense": "phrase",
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          "sense": "phrase",
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          "alt": "まかぬたねははえぬ",
          "code": "ja",
          "english": "seeds that aren't planted won't grow",
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          "roman": "makanu tane wa haenu",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "蒔かぬ種は生えぬ"
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          "code": "no",
          "lang": "Norwegian",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "det må knuses noen egg for å lage en omelett"
        },
        {
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "roman": "emlâ-ye nâ-nevešte ğalat nadârad",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "املای نانوشته غلط ندارد"
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        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "nie można mieć ciastka i zjeść ciastko"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "gdzie drwa rąbią, tam wióry lecą"
        },
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          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "não se pode fazer omelete sem quebrar os ovos"
        },
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          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "note": "лес ру́бят — ще́пки летя́т (les rúbjat — ščépki letját) (when wood is cut - chips fly)",
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          "code": "es",
          "english": "you can't make a tortilla without breaking the eggs",
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          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "no se puede hacer una tortilla sin romper los huevos"
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          "code": "es",
          "english": "Whoever wants some fish must get his/her arse wet",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "phrase",
          "word": "quien quiera peces, que moje el culo"
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      "word": "天下沒有白吃的午餐"
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      "code": "cmn",
      "english": "there is no such thing as free lunch",
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      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "天下没有白吃的午餐"
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      "code": "cmn",
      "english": "you gain some and you lose some",
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      "english": "one doesn't make an omelette without breaking eggs",
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      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "on ne fait pas d’omelette sans casser des œufs"
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      "word": "wo gehobelt wird, fallen Späne"
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      "alt": "まかぬたねははえぬ",
      "code": "ja",
      "english": "seeds that aren't planted won't grow",
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      "roman": "makanu tane wa haenu",
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      "word": "蒔かぬ種は生えぬ"
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      "lang": "Norwegian",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "det må knuses noen egg for å lage en omelett"
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      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "roman": "emlâ-ye nâ-nevešte ğalat nadârad",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "املای نانوشته غلط ندارد"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "nie można mieć ciastka i zjeść ciastko"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "gdzie drwa rąbią, tam wióry lecą"
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      "code": "pt",
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      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "não se pode fazer omelete sem quebrar os ovos"
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    },
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      "lang": "Slovak",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "keď sa rúbe les, lietajú triesky"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "english": "nothing is worth the effort without stirring up conflicts",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "nada que valga la pena se logra sin crear conflictos"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "english": "you can't make a tortilla without breaking the eggs",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "no se puede hacer una tortilla sin romper los huevos"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "english": "Whoever wants some fish must get his/her arse wet",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "phrase",
      "word": "quien quiera peces, que moje el culo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"
}

Download raw JSONL data for you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs meaning in English (5.9kB)

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English 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.

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.