no choice but to
127
2.3
- idiom
:
no tener más remedio que
- When the deadline passed, she had no choice but to submit her work late.
- no choice but to accept
- left with no choice but to
- no choice but to take
And so we have no choice but to make intuitive guesses.
- And so we have no choice but to make intuitive guesses.
- It's like Ava has no choice but to speak her language back to her.
- And so I had no choice but to make my own friends in my head.
- And you have no choice but to be extremely grateful for it.
- And I learned that I had no choice but to be healthy.
- And but I had to I felt that I had no choice but to bring this issue up.
- The Democrats have no choice but to do the same thing.
- And that shows that I have no, no choice but to be grounded.
- They were treated horribly where they almost had no choice but to leave.
Examples
-
But after I explained the situation, he had no choice but to put me up.
Fiction book (1995) -
My life was in danger and I had no choice but to leave Afghanistan.
-
Come on, child, we have no choice but to stand up and fight.
-
And so I had no choice but to make my own friends in my head.
-
And I learned that I had no choice but to be healthy.
-
You have no choice but to trust me.
-
And you have no choice but to be extremely grateful for it.
-
So, as I was saying, we have no choice but to make these cuts.
-
We have no choice but to negotiate.
-
The Chinese leaders felt that they had no choice but to take Hong Kong back.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
445
1.4
A situation in which you must do something because nothing else is possible
9
6.7
A difficult situation where you have no good choice
1
6.9
Having no option to choose
1
5.6
No other choices remain
1
8.4
A situation where you must take the only option or have nothing
Antonyms
How Free
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'forced to do something' is directly derivable from the parts: 'no' + 'choice' = 'no options', and 'but' (= except) + 'to' introduces the action that remains. This construction follows a common, compositional pattern in English (and parallels in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
No choice but to comes from a simple picture: imagine closed doors on every side and only one open path left. If you have no choice, you are 'forced' to take that path, so the phrase means you must do something because there are no other options.