highway robbery
A situation in which one is charged an exorbitant price. I need to find another mechanic because this bill is just highway robbery! I can't believe how much he charged for a simple repair. They got me for an extra $300 on the repair job, knowing that I had no choice but to pay up. It's highway robbery, I tell you! Well, that bill is just highway robbery! We're clearly in the wrong business!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
highway robbery
outrageous overpricing; a bill that is much higher than normally acceptable but must be paid. (As if one had been accosted and robbed on the open road or in broad daylight.) Four thousand dollars! That's highway robbery for one piece of furniture! I won't pay it! It's highway robbery!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
highway robbery
The exaction of an exorbitantly high price or fee. For example, You paid ten dollars for that meat? That's highway robbery. This term, used figuratively since the late 1800s, alludes to literal robbery of travelers on or near a public road.
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.
highway robbery
BRITISH, AMERICAN or daylight robbery
BRITISHYou use highway robbery or daylight robbery to describe a situation in which you are charged far too much money for something. They're charging ten bucks for the comics, which sounds like highway robbery to us. You have to pay thousands of dollars for the service. It's daylight robbery!
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
highway robbery
So expensive that it is considered extortion. This expression simply transfers the literal meaning—armed robbery of travelers on an open road—to the more or less legitimate charging of exorbitant prices. As J. B. Priestley put it in It’s An Old Country (1967), “Nothing on the wine list under two-pound-ten. Highway robbery by candlelight.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer