rob Peter to pay Paul
rob Peter to pay Paul verb: to use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
Verb
rob Peter to pay Paul (third-person singular simple present robs Peter to pay Paul, present participle robbing Peter to pay Paul, simple past and past participle robbed Peter to pay Paul)
- To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
- [I]t would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, for the government to pay a stamp-duty to itself.1838, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 17, number 98, London, page 224
- Perhaps what the Ocean takes from one part of the Cape it gives to another,—robs Peter to pay Paul.1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter VIII. "The Highland Light", page 140.
rob Peter to pay Paul meaning in Urdu
rob Peter to pay Paul in Urdu
- to use resources producing no net gain
- احمد کی پگڑی محمود کے سر پر ahmad kī pagṛī mahmūd ke sir par
Forms of rob Peter to pay Paul
| third-person singular present | robs Peter to pay Paul |
|---|---|
| present participle | robbing Peter to pay Paul |
| past participle | robbed Peter to pay Paul |
| past | robbed Peter to pay Paul |
| alternative form | borrow from Peter to pay Paul |
Origin of rob Peter to pay Paul
Unknown. Sometimes claimed to refer to Church taxes paid to Westminster Abbey (originally called Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster) that were sent to repair St. Paul's Cathedral in the mid 1500s, though records exist of the phrase since about 1450.
Questions about rob Peter to pay Paul
- What does rob Peter to pay Paul mean?
- Rob Peter to pay Paul means to use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
- What is rob Peter to pay Paul in Urdu?
- Rob Peter to pay Paul in Urdu is احمد کی پگڑی محمود کے سر پر (ahmad kī pagṛī mahmūd ke sir par). See Rob Peter to pay Paul meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is rob Peter to pay Paul?
- Rob Peter to pay Paul is a verb.
- What is the past tense of rob Peter to pay Paul?
- The past tense of rob Peter to pay Paul is robbed Peter to pay Paul.
Words near rob Peter to pay Paul in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rob Peter to pay Paul (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rob Peter to pay Paul.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rob Peter to pay Paul.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rob_peter_to_pay_paul. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.