ENGLISH
REFERENCE

daylight robbery

idiom
Meaning

The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.


Origin

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.

Examples
SIMPLE

Paying ten dollars for a small bottle of water is daylight robbery.

CONTEXTUAL

The hotel charged us fifty dollars for parking, which felt like absolute daylight robbery.

COMPLEX

The sudden increase in subscription fees for a service that offers no new features is nothing short of daylight robbery.

Anchors to
Related idioms4entries
  1. 01

    burn daylight

    To waste time.

  2. 02

    highway robbery

    Excessive or exorbitant prices.

  3. 03

    put daylight between oneself and someone

    To increase or create distance or difference between people or objects.

  4. 04

    see daylight

    To reach an understanding of something previously obscure; to arrive at a solution to a problem.

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