there's no such thing as a free lunch
there's no such thing as a free lunch phrase: nothing is free; even things that appear free often have to be paid for in the end.
Phrase
there's no such thing as a free lunch
- Nothing is free; even things that appear free often have to be paid for in the end.
Synonyms of there's no such thing as a free lunch
Forms of there's no such thing as a free lunch
| alternative form | there ain't no such thing as a free lunch |
|---|---|
| alternative form | there is no free lunch |
| alternative form | there is no such thing as a free lunch |
Origin of there's no such thing as a free lunch
In use since the 1930s. Popularized by the American economist Milton Friedman through the title of a 1975 book, and frequently misattributed to him.
Questions about there's no such thing as a free lunch
- What does there's no such thing as a free lunch mean?
- There's no such thing as a free lunch means nothing is free; even things that appear free often have to be paid for in the end.
- What part of speech is there's no such thing as a free lunch?
- There's no such thing as a free lunch is a phrase.
Words near there's no such thing as a free lunch in the dictionary
- there's no I in team
- there's no place like home
- there's no point crying over spilt milk
- there's no shame in my game
- there's no smoke without fire
- there's no such thing as a free lunch
- there's no such thing as a stupid question
- there's no there there
- there's no time like the present
- there's no use
- there's no use crying over spilt milk
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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Cite this entry: “there's no such thing as a free lunch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/there%27s_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.