all or nothing
12
4.2
- idiom
:
todo o nada
- I often struggle with the all or nothing mentality, not only when it comes to decluttering, but any major task or goal that I have.
So I just think that you can't have this all or nothing attitude.
- So I just think that you can't have this all or nothing attitude.
- We usually get into an US versus them, all or nothing mindset.
- Most things do not have to be all or nothing.
- And this makes good sense because belief is not something that's all or nothing for Hume.
- The problem is whether they lead you to the point of saying that it's all or nothing.
- For me personally, I can't do long distance relationships because I'm all or nothing.
- Like their window of having all these players is obviously closing and they have such a core unit that it's all or nothing this year.
- It all counts and when we think that it all counts, we get out of this all or nothing mindset we get into just do whatever is the version I can do right now.
- It's, you know, that it's all or nothing.
- And, and where I was like all or nothing.
- Yeah, probably more injuries, but it's all or nothing.
- By selling out in batches, you are reducing the chances that an all or nothing events goes badly against you.
- But when people challenge them is often when they turn against you and they see you in their all or nothing eyes as all bad.
Examples
-
An all-or-nothing yes/no vote on the reforms was scheduled for 15 November 1992.
Academic text (1993) -
Why does it have to be all or nothing with you?
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And here I think you can see that there it's not an all or nothing situation.
-
It's all or nothing with me.
-
The next time we do this, it will be all or nothing.
Fiction book (1992) -
I think exercise sometimes seems all or nothing to me, too.
Blog text (1) -
When I commit, it's all or nothing.
-
We usually get into an US versus them, all or nothing mindset.
-
I think one of the biggest sources of problems in my life has come from my all-or-nothing mentality.
Blog text (34) -
When it comes to achieving my goals, I believe in an all or nothing approach, giving my maximum effort or none at all.
Synonyms
5
5.2
Allowing no compromise and happening completely or not at all
1
7.0
Happening fully or not at all, with no partial result
Antonyms
How Committed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ‘either complete commitment or none’ is directly and compositionally derived from the constituents 'all' + 'or' + 'nothing' — a straightforward binary coordination where the alternatives are explicit. This simple, logical structure is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'todo o nada'), so a B1 learner who knows the words would readily infer the idiom’s meaning.
Etymology
All or nothing comes from the image of a risky bet: you push all your money forward so you either win everything or end up with nothing. That's why it now means 'complete commitment' with no middle ground.