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Glite Dictionary
for all it was worth

for all it was worth

3 6.5
As much as possible
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : hasta el último momento
  • The guests danced for all it was worth, enjoying the celebration to the fullest.
  • milk it for all it was worth
  • ride it for all it was worth
  • play it for all it was worth

Examples

  • She came from a family of wealthy boomers herself, and had milked her trust fund for all it was worth.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • And McInerney's attorney played that for all it was worth.

    Blog text (10)

  • I decided to play it for all it was worth.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • Experience the world for all it's worth.

    Blog text (22)

  • And for all it's worth, you look amazing.

    Blog text (4)

  • The corporate media is spinning it for all it is worth.

    Blog text (3)

  • As soon as I was feeling clever enough again, I realized that I had a great opportunity to milk this for all it's worth.

    Blog text (30)

  • If it was true, the Obama campaign would already have released this news and tried to milk it for all it's worth.

    Blog text (18)

  • Though I am starting to feel as if I have squandered it, and I either should have built a proper business around it and milked it for all it was worth, or sold the key on.

    Blog text (17)

  • Every day for a week, Hearst played the story for all it was worth, splashing tens of thousands of words and dozens of photographs across the pages of his newspapers.

    Academic text (1998)

Synonyms

as much as possible
vsfor all it was worth
82 1.4

As far as you can

focuses on achieving the greatest possible extent rather than stressing feasibility
to the max
vsfor all it was worth
  • Informal
13 7.7

As much as possible

is identical in meaning but is the more neutral standard form

Antonyms

not at all
331 1.0

In no way

How Much

for all it was worth
  • Informal
3 6.5
sort of
  • Informal
∞ 2.1
a little
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

for all it was worth positive

Morphology

for + all + it + be + worth

The phrase combines transparent parts—'for' + 'all' + 'worth'—so a learner can plausibly infer a sense like 'to the extent of its value' or 'as much as possible'. However, the construction is idiomatic in usage (and often appears contracted as 'for all it's worth'), so the exact pragmatic sense ('to the fullest possible extent') is not fully predictable from the words alone, making it only partially compositional.

Etymology

The phrase for all it was worth comes from the idea of using something until it had no worth left, like running an old car until it wore out. So it now means 'as much as possible'.