if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
- if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
Peanuts in the sense of ‘a small sum of money’ (esp. when considered as inadequate payment) originated as mid 20th-cent. US slang.
1966 L. COULTHARD in Director Aug. 228 Shareholders want the best available businessmen to lead the companies and recognise that you get what you pay for. If you pay in peanuts, you must expect to get monkeys.
1979 P. ALEXANDER Show me Hero iii. ‘That’s forty thousand we’re giving away. Seems an awful lot.’ ‘If you pay peanuts,’ said Ashman, ‘you get monkeys.’
1979 Guardian 11 Sept. 30 The companies’ chief negotiator..was greeted with shouts of ‘if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys’.
1994 S. REUBEN Origin and Cause xvii. 107 ‘How much is..this photo-enhancement going to cost my client?’ ‘A bundle... But in my experience, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.’
Proverbs new dictionary.
Look at other dictionaries:
If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. — something that you say which means that only stupid people will work for you if you do not pay very much. This company is full of incompetents! Well, if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys … New idioms dictionary
Peanuts — I hated one of my summer jobs as a kid because it paid peanuts. The full expression is that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. It is a fairly derogatory way of saying that manual labour doesn t need to be bright and doesn t need a lot of pay.… … The American's guide to speaking British
pay — noun see pay beforehand was never well served no cure, no pay verb see he that cannot pay, let him pray if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys crime doesn’t pay they that dance must pay the fiddler … Proverbs new dictionary
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cheapness — (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) Low price Nouns 1. cheapness, inexpensiveness, cut rates, low, budget, or reduced price; sale, discount, depreciation, price war, going out of business sale; drug on the market; loss leader; buyer s… … English dictionary for students
monkey — see the higher the monkey climbs the more he shows his tail if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys softly, softly, catchee monkey … Proverbs new dictionary
peanut — see if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys … Proverbs new dictionary
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