Idiom
a hundred and ten percent
Meaning
A level of effort beyond what one can usually sustain; great exertion.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“She always gives a hundred and ten percent at work.”
“I give a hundred and ten percent when I practice the piano.”
“Do you really give a hundred and ten percent in every gym session?”
“The team gave a hundred and ten percent to finish the project before the deadline.”
“If you want to win the scholarship, you must give a hundred and ten percent during your interview tomorrow.”
“The volunteers are giving a hundred and ten percent to clean up the park after the storm.”
“The lead singer gave a hundred and ten percent during the final encore, even though his voice was starting to fail after the long tour.”
“Though exhausted, the athlete dug deep and found a hundred and ten percent for that final sprint across the finish line.”
Examples
simple
“She always gives a hundred and ten percent at work.”
“I give a hundred and ten percent when I practice the piano.”
“Do you really give a hundred and ten percent in every gym session?”
contextual
“The team gave a hundred and ten percent to finish the project before the deadline.”
“If you want to win the scholarship, you must give a hundred and ten percent during your interview tomorrow.”
“The volunteers are giving a hundred and ten percent to clean up the park after the storm.”
“The lead singer gave a hundred and ten percent during the final encore, even though his voice was starting to fail after the long tour.”
complex
“Though exhausted, the athlete dug deep and found a hundred and ten percent for that final sprint across the finish line.”
Origin
From the twentieth-century metaphor of operating a machine at higher than its rated capacity. The figure suggests a state of exertion that exceeds the normal maximum of a specific parameter, such as speed or temperature. To offer a hundred and ten percent is to treat the human output as a mechanical system pushed beyond its engineering limits.
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated