Idiom
all duck or no dinner
Meaning
All or nothing.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He bets all his money on one game, all duck or no dinner.”
“She decided to quit her job to start a business, choosing to go all duck or no dinner.”
“The entrepreneur approached the high-stakes negotiation with an all duck or no dinner attitude, fully aware that failure would result in total ruin.”
Examples
simple
“He bets all his money on one game, all duck or no dinner.”
contextual
“She decided to quit her job to start a business, choosing to go all duck or no dinner.”
complex
“The entrepreneur approached the high-stakes negotiation with an all duck or no dinner attitude, fully aware that failure would result in total ruin.”
Origin
Attested in Australian English c. 1895. The phrase records a binary approach to success, though its specific avian or culinary origins are not further detailed in the record.
Key words
Related idioms
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