easy come, easy go
When something is easily obtained, it is typically lost just as easily. Of course you found a $10 on the street and immediately spent it—easy come, easy go! I heard Jenny's already dumped her new boyfriend. Easy come, easy go, I guess! Those two were the first buyers that approached us, and we had no issues with them until they suddenly backed out of the deal. Easy come, easy go, right?
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
easy come, easy go
Cliché said to explain the loss of something that required only a small amount of effort to acquire in the first place. Ann found twenty dollars in the morning and spent it foolishly at noon. "Easy come, easy go," she said. John spends his money as fast as he can earn it. With John it's easy come, easy go.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
easy come, easy go
Readily won and readily lost, as in Easy come, easy go-that's how it is for Mark when he plays the stock market. This phrase states a truth known since ancient times and expressed in numerous proverbs with slightly different wording ( lightly come, lightly go; quickly come, quickly go). The adverb easy was substituted in the early 1800s.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
easy come, easy go
INFORMALYou say easy come, easy go to mean that if money or objects are easy to get, you do not care very much about spending it or losing them. Note: In the first idiom below, ABC is pronounced `a b c', as if you are spelling it out. My attitude to money is easy come, easy go. That's to say, I earn a lot, but I also give quite a lot away in different ways.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
easy come, easy go
used to indicate that something acquired without effort or difficulty may be lost or spent casually and without regret. Although recorded in this exact form only from the mid 19th century, easy come, easy go had parallels in medieval French and in the English sayings light come, light go (mid 16th century) and quickly come, quickly go (mid 19th century).
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
ˌeasy ˈcome, ˌeasy ˈgo
(saying) something that has been obtained very easily and quickly may be lost or wasted in the same way: Her parents have given her all the money she wants, but she’s always in debt. With her, it’s a case of easy come, easy go.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
easy come, easy go
What is readily achieved or gained is also readily lost. This principle was noted hundreds of years ago by the Chinese sage Chuang-tsze (“Quickly come and quickly go,” ca. 400 b.c.) and appears several times in Chaucer’s writings—for example, “As lightly as it comth, so wol we spende” (The Pardoner’s Tale). “Light come, light go” is also in John Heywood’s 1546 proverb collection. Easy was substituted for lightly and quickly in the nineteenth century.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer