daylight robbery
The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Paying ten dollars for a small bottle of water is daylight robbery.”
“The hotel charged us fifty dollars for parking, which felt like absolute daylight robbery.”
“The sudden increase in subscription fees for a service that offers no new features is nothing short of daylight robbery.”
disputed origin
From daylight + robbery, originally used literally to refer to robbery occurring in the daytime rather than at night, which was thought to be more audacious or risky.
- 01
beat the daylights out of
To beat (someone) severely.
- 02
burn daylight
To waste time.
- 03
highway robbery
Excessive or exorbitant prices.
- 04
knock the living daylights out of
To beat or strike someone.
- 05
put daylight between oneself and someone
To increase or create distance or difference between people or objects.
- 06
scare the living daylights out of
To scare something or someone to a large degree.
- 07
see daylight
To reach an understanding of something previously obscure; to arrive at a solution to a problem.
Last updated August 10, 2026