Word.ws English Dictionary

you don't get something for nothing

you don't get something for nothing proverb: 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.

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.
    • There's half the fight won, first off."
      "Osterman bribed him, I suppose," observed Magnus.
      Annixter raised a shoulder vexatiously.
      "You've got to pay for what you get," he returned. "You don't get something for nothing, I guess."1901, Frank Norris, chapter 5, in The Octopus
    • "You don't get something for nothing," said Richard Hannah, an analyst for Phillips & Drew, a London brokerage house. "For the 40 percent return, you take one bloody huge risk."1987 November 15, Steve Lohr, “Eurotunnel's Day of Reckoning”, in New York Times, retrieved 20 Sep 2018

you don't get something for nothing meaning in Arabic

you don't get something for nothing in Arabic

everything has a price
الْبِلَاش يُجِيبُ ٱلْعَمَى وَٱلطُرَاش al-bilāš yujību l-ʕamā waṭ-ṭurāš

Forms of you don't get something for nothing

alternative formyou can't get something for nothing
alternative formyou don’t get owt for nowt

Questions about you don't get something for nothing

What does you don't get something for nothing mean?
You don't get something for nothing means 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.
What is you don't get something for nothing in Arabic?
You don't get something for nothing in Arabic is الْبِلَاش يُجِيبُ ٱلْعَمَى وَٱلطُرَاش (al-bilāš yujību l-ʕamā waṭ-ṭurāš). See You don't get something for nothing meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is you don't get something for nothing?
You don't get something for nothing is a proverb.

Words near you don't get something for nothing in the dictionary

  1. you don't dip your pen in the company inkwell
  2. you don't dip your pen in the company's ink
  3. you don't dip your pen in the inkwell
  4. you don't fish off the company pier
  5. you don't get owt for nowt
  6. you don't get something for nothing
  7. you don't get your nookie where you get your cookies
  8. you don't know what you're talking about
  9. you don't know what you've got till it's gone
  10. you don't know where it's been
  11. you don't look at the mantelpiece when you poke the fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: you don't get something for nothing (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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