run for one's money
14
6.7
- idiom
- Informal
:
dar guerra
- We think they give Miley a run for her money.
- give him a run for his money
Examples
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What do you say we give 'em a run for their money?
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Father Time is undefeated, but here, we give him a good run for his money.
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Yeah, we gave them a run for their money.
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You college kids sure did give us a run for our money.
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At least I gave them a good run for their money.
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My kid's little league team could give these guys a run for their money.
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Anybody out there want to give him a run for his money?
Fiction book (2001) -
Let's give the old man a run for his money.
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You gave my best racers a real run for their money.
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The new cafe in town is giving the established restaurant a real run for their money with its delicious menu.
Antonyms
How Challenging
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a partial clue in the parts: 'run' can mean to compete and 'money' suggests stakes, so a learner might infer a competitive challenge. However, the expression does not literally involve money and the full idiomatic sense 'to give someone a serious challenge' is not directly predictable from the words alone and typically requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Run for one's money may come from old horse races, where another horse could make the favourite horse run hard to win the prize money. That's why today it means 'to give strong competition' or 'make someone work hard to win'.