Word.ws English Dictionary

the world owes one a living

the world owes one a living phrase: one deserves a comfortable life, without having to work hard for it.

Phrase

the world owes one a living

  1. One deserves a comfortable life, without having to work hard for it.

Origin of the world owes one a living

In reference to the song The World Owes Me a Living, which premiered in the Walt Disney animated short The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934).

Questions about the world owes one a living

What does the world owes one a living mean?
The world owes one a living means one deserves a comfortable life, without having to work hard for it.
What part of speech is the world owes one a living?
The world owes one a living is a phrase.

Words near the world owes one a living in the dictionary

  1. the world is one's lobster
  2. the world is someone's oyster
  3. the world is too much with someone
  4. the world kept spinning
  5. the world over
  6. the world owes one a living
  7. the writing is on the wall
  8. the wrong side of
  9. the yellow peril
  10. the'e
  11. the-

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: the world owes one a living (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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Cite this entry: “the world owes one a living.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/the_world_owes_one_a_living. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.