robbery

a fair exchange is no robbery

proverb If items of equal value are exchanged, it is a fair trade or deal. Come on, a fair exchange is no robbery. You're gonna have to up your side of the bargain to make this a fair trade. I think both fanbases are happy with the trade. The two players have similar star power, and a fair exchange is no robbery. Sure, a fair exchange is no robbery, but he's getting way more out of this deal than I am!

See also: exchange, fair, no, robbery

daylight robbery

A situation in which one is charged an exorbitant price. I need to find another mechanic because this bill is just daylight robbery! I can't believe how much he charged for a simple repair.

See also: daylight, robbery

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.

See also: highway, robbery

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

daylight robbery

Fig. the practice of blatantly or grossly overcharging. It's daylight robbery to charge that amount of money for a hotel room! The cost of renting a car at that place is daylight robbery.

See also: daylight, robbery

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!

See also: highway, robbery

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

daylight robbery

Charging exorbitant prices, as in The amount you're asking for this couch is daylight robbery. [Mid-1900s] Also see highway robbery.

See also: daylight, robbery

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.

See also: highway, robbery

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

BRITISH

You 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!

See also: highway, robbery

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

daylight robbery

blatant and unfair overcharging. British informal

2005 MotleyFool.co.uk: Comment Have you seen the price of potted plants and fruit trees in garden centres recently? It's daylight robbery.

See also: daylight, robbery

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

ˌdaylight ˈrobbery

(informal, especially British English) a price or fee that you think is far too high: £6 000 for an old car like this? That’s daylight robbery!

See also: daylight, robbery

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

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.”

See also: highway, robbery

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer

daylight robbery

An outrageously high price. An appliance store advertises a refrigerators for $900, but you see ads for the same brand and model elsewhere for half that price. That store, you conclude, is committing daylight robbery, a “crime” so metaphorically blatant that it is being committed in broad daylight. That's not to be confused with “highway robbery.” “Daylight robbery” offers you the option of paying the money or not, but you don't have that choice in “highway robbery,” just as the victim of a stagecoach holdup had no choice. Your city raises property taxes. You receive the bill, take one look, and scream, “That's highway robbery!”

See also: daylight, robbery

Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price Copyright © 2011 by Steven D. Price