to serve two masters
4
8.2
- idiom
:
servir a dos amos
- The only downside to such audacity is everyone realizes it's impossible to serve two masters.
Examples
-
No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate one,
Blog text (21) -
Scripture says that we cannot serve two masters—both God and money (i.e., the things of the world).
Blog text (15) -
A man cannot serve two masters.
-
No man can serve two masters.
-
For no man can serve two masters.
Academic text (2001) -
For no man can serve two masters... he will hate the one and love the other.
Blog text (15) -
You cannot serve two masters, and if Christ is your Master, then you have no choice.
Blog text (31) -
Remember, Jesus said we cannot serve two masters and that true believers would have to pay a price for the faith.
Blog text (32) -
Conflicts of interest embody the biblical admonition against serving two masters.
Academic text (2002) -
It is nearly impossible to serve two masters without compromising your integrity.
Synonyms
27
7.2
To try to get the good parts of two opposite choices at the same time
1
9.9
To try to do two opposite things at the same time
1
6.7
Act with different goals so people cannot work well together
To support two opposite sides at the same time to please both
To support two opposite sides at the same time
Antonyms
How Conflicted
31
4.2
4
8.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The constituent words 'serve' + 'two' + 'masters' compose a clear literal image of working for two authorities, so learners who know the parts can infer the basic idea of divided service. However, the full pragmatic meaning — that it is impossible to satisfy both or be truly loyal to both — is a proverbatically loaded inference rather than a strictly compositional sense, so some prior exposure or cultural knowledge helps.
Etymology
Serve two masters comes from an old image of a servant who must obey two different people at once; the word serve means to work for someone and masters are the people in charge, so the servant cannot 'please both' and the phrase means trying to satisfy two people or groups with different interests, which usually fails.