Word.ws English Dictionary

no free lunch

no free lunch is the ellipsis of there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Meaning of there's no such thing as a free lunch

Phrase

there's no such thing as a free lunch

  1. Nothing is free; even things that appear free often have to be paid for in the end.
    Synonyms:
    TANSTAAFL, TINSTAAFL

Questions about no free lunch

What is no free lunch the ellipsis of?
No free lunch is the ellipsis of there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Words near no free lunch in the dictionary

  1. no fish, no dinner
  2. no fixed abode
  3. no flies on
  4. no fly list
  5. no fly lists
  6. no free lunch
  7. no free lunch theorem
  8. no frills
  9. no fun
  10. no fun at parties
  11. No Fun City

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: no free lunch (page history and authors); there's no such thing as a free lunch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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