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Glite Dictionary
to give someone enough rope

to give someone enough rope

3 8.6
Let someone act freely until they make a mistake
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : dar suficiente cuerda
  • If you give your employees enough rope, they might make costly mistakes that hurt the company.
  • give you just enough rope

Examples

  • In other words, give him enough rope to hang himself.

    Blog text (34)

  • Give him enough rope (or airtime) and he will hang himself.

    Blog text (28)

  • As the old saying goes, "give him enough rope and he will hang himself."

    Blog text (19)

  • In general, our approach should be to give Obama enough economic rope to hang himself.

    Blog text (10)

  • I think it's great that Rachel gives them enough rope to hang themselves, and she reels them in when they start filibustering.

    Blog text (24)

  • The politician's advisors warned him that if he was given enough rope, he could end up ruining his career.

  • When teaching students, sometimes you need to give them enough rope to make their own choices, even if they might fail.

Synonyms

to give enough rope
vsto give someone enough rope
  • Informal
8.7

Allow someone freedom to show ability or make mistakes that reveal their true character

permits freedom mainly to create situations where someone may cause their own downfall
to loosen the apron strings
vsto give someone enough rope
  • Informal
7.5

Allow a child to be more independent

permits freedom mainly to create situations where someone may cause their own downfall

Antonyms

to control
∞ 2.4

To have power over people, things, or situations

to restrict
361 3.1

Limit how much people can use or access something

How Free

free rein
15 4.1
to give someone enough rope
  • Informal
3 8.6
to allow
∞ 1.0
to let
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

give someone enough rope infinitive
gave someone enough rope past
given someone enough rope past participle
giving someone enough rope present participle
gives someone enough rope third person singular

Morphology

give + someone + enough + rope

The literal parts ('give', 'someone', 'enough', 'rope') do suggest handing someone sufficient rope, and that image can hint at the idea of providing the means for a self-inflicted downfall (via the association of rope with hanging). However, the idiomatic reading—allowing freedom so someone will ruin themselves—relies on cultural knowledge of the 'hang oneself' metaphor and is not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so a B1 learner who only knows the words may not reliably infer the full meaning.

Etymology

Give someone enough rope may come from the image of handing someone plenty of rope so they seem free to act, but then they use that freedom to make a big mistake and ruin themselves. That's why it means 'to allow someone enough freedom or chance that they cause their own failure'.