play stupid games, win stupid prizes
- idiom
- Texting
:
quien juega a juegos estúpidos, gana premios estúpidos
- If you taunt the dog, don’t be surprised if you get bitten; play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Examples
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You keep cheating on your exams, and now you've been suspended. Well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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He ignored all the warnings and crashed his bike—play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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If you play stupid games, you will win stupid prizes!
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You should remember: if you play stupid games, you will win stupid prizes.
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He ignored all the warnings and crashed his bike—play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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If you taunt the dog, don’t be surprised if you get bitten; play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
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You keep cheating on your exams, and now you've been suspended. Well, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
play + stupid + games, + win + stupid + prize
The proverb's meaning — that engaging in foolish actions leads to negative consequences — is directly compositional from 'play' + 'stupid games' and 'win' + 'stupid prizes'; the causal relation is explicit and predictable. The ironic use of 'prizes' as undesirable outcomes is a simple figurative extension and similar causal proverbs exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes is a modern saying that gives a simple picture: if you play a silly or risky 'game', you will win a bad 'prize' like trouble or pain. So, it means that doing foolish things often brings bad results.