Idiom
thin end of the wedge
Meaning
Something that if allowed or accepted to a small degree would lead to systematic encroachment.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Allowing this small change is the thin end of the wedge.”
“If we let them skip this one rule, it could be the thin end of the wedge for our entire policy.”
“Many critics argued that the new legislation was merely the thin end of the wedge, fearing it would eventually erode fundamental civil liberties.”
Examples
simple
“Allowing this small change is the thin end of the wedge.”
contextual
“If we let them skip this one rule, it could be the thin end of the wedge for our entire policy.”
complex
“Many critics argued that the new legislation was merely the thin end of the wedge, fearing it would eventually erode fundamental civil liberties.”
Key words
Related idioms
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