on approval
1
4.4
- idiom
:
a prueba
- You can take the dress home on approval, and return it if it doesn't fit.
Examples
-
You brought me all the way here on approval?
-
At least get it on approval.
-
- They were ordered on approval!
-
Hope these are on approval.
-
You figured somebody might just take 'em on approval.
-
"On approval, he said," said Patrick.
Fiction book (1997) -
A week on approval.
-
The store lets customers test electronics on approval for a week before buying.
-
Many bookstores allow readers to browse new titles on approval, giving them time to decide.
How Returnable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituents 'on' and 'approval' (approval = acceptance/permission) give a clear hint that something is subject to acceptance, so a learner could infer a conditional or acceptance-related sense. However the specific commercial meaning — goods supplied for trial with the option to buy or return — is a conventional collocation/usage that is not fully predictable from the parts alone, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
On approval comes from shops letting customers take items home to try before they buy. If the customer 'approved' the item they kept it, but if not they returned it, so today the phrase means goods given to test and possibly return.