"you don't get something for nothing" meaning in English

See you don't get something for nothing in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} you don't get something for nothing, {{en-proverb}} you don't get something for nothing
  1. One cannot expect to receive some benefit if one does not pay for it in some way or does not face a counterbalancing hazard or harm. Synonyms: you can't get something for nothing, you don’t get owt for nowt [Northern-England] Related terms: no pain, no gain, the cat would eat fish but would not wet her feet, there's no such thing as a free lunch, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, you only get what you give Translations (everything has a price): الْبِلَاش يُجِيبُ ٱلْعَمَى وَٱلطُرَاش (al-bilāš yujību l-ʕamā waṭ-ṭurāš) (Arabic), voor wat hoort wat (Dutch), mitään ei saa ilmaiseksi (Finnish), ei makaavan kissan suuhun hiiri juokse (Finnish), on n’a rien sans rien (French), alles hat seinen Preis (German), man kriegt nichts geschenkt (German), nur der Tod ist umsonst (German), von nichts kommt nichts (German), chi non semina non raccoglie (Italian), coś za coś (Polish)
    Sense id: en-you_don't_get_something_for_nothing-en-proverb-DXNM5kiE Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for you don't get something for nothing meaning in English (4.0kB)

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          "ref": "1901, Frank Norris, chapter 5, in The Octopus",
          "text": "There's half the fight won, first off.\"\n\"Osterman bribed him, I suppose,\" observed Magnus.\nAnnixter raised a shoulder vexatiously.\n\"You've got to pay for what you get,\" he returned. \"You don't get something for nothing, I guess.\"",
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          "ref": "1987 November 15, Steve Lohr, “Eurotunnel's Day of Reckoning”, in New York Times, retrieved 2018-09-20",
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          "ref": "1998 September 3, Chris Taylor, “The Blue Pill Blues”, in Time, retrieved 2018-09-20",
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          "text": "Melanie Phillips, who defends the institution of marriage and is not keen to extend property rights to cohabiting couples, says: \"The law is based on justice; justice requires that you don't get something for nothing. You don't claim rights if you don't enter into obligations.\"",
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          "code": "ar",
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          "roman": "al-bilāš yujību l-ʕamā waṭ-ṭurāš",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "الْبِلَاش يُجِيبُ ٱلْعَمَى وَٱلطُرَاش"
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          "code": "fi",
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          "word": "ei makaavan kissan suuhun hiiri juokse"
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "on n’a rien sans rien"
        },
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          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "alles hat seinen Preis"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "man kriegt nichts geschenkt"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "nur der Tod ist umsonst"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "von nichts kommt nichts"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "chi non semina non raccoglie"
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          "sense": "everything has a price",
          "word": "coś za coś"
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          "ref": "1998 September 3, Chris Taylor, “The Blue Pill Blues”, in Time, retrieved 2018-09-20",
          "text": "As the saying goes, you don't get something for nothing—especially not where sex is concerned. Just as the terrors of HIV followed the joys of the sexual revolution, so it seems that Pfizer's anti-impotence wonder drug, Viagra, carries with it more health risks than anyone suspected.",
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          "text": "Melanie Phillips, who defends the institution of marriage and is not keen to extend property rights to cohabiting couples, says: \"The law is based on justice; justice requires that you don't get something for nothing. You don't claim rights if you don't enter into obligations.\"",
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      "word": "you don’t get owt for nowt"
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      "code": "ar",
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      "roman": "al-bilāš yujību l-ʕamā waṭ-ṭurāš",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "الْبِلَاش يُجِيبُ ٱلْعَمَى وَٱلطُرَاش"
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      "sense": "everything has a price",
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      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "mitään ei saa ilmaiseksi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "ei makaavan kissan suuhun hiiri juokse"
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      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "on n’a rien sans rien"
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      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "alles hat seinen Preis"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "man kriegt nichts geschenkt"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "nur der Tod ist umsonst"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "von nichts kommt nichts"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "chi non semina non raccoglie"
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      "code": "pl",
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      "sense": "everything has a price",
      "word": "coś za coś"
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  "word": "you don't get something for nothing"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-24 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (82c8ff9 and f4967a5). 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.