give them an inch and they'll take a mile
Language: English
Part of speech: proverb
Forms: form: give them an inch and they'll take an ell
form: give someone an inch and someone will take a mile
form: give someone an inch and he'll take a yard
Etymology: Modified variant of give them an inch and they'll take an ell, to adjust for the ell's obsolescence due to the standardisation of the imperial system.
Senses: examples: text: O the tyranny of aristocracy!—give it a furlong, and it will take a mile,—a veto stopped me once from going to Brussels: and now comes a Lettre de cachet ordering me to Paris.
ref: 1843, John Bowring, editor, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, volume 10, Edinburgh: William Tait, pages 279–280:
text: If you had a horse or a small article of property taken, you would recover it by law; not for the value of the article itself, but if you give an aggressor an inch, he will take a mile.
ref: 1846, George C. Clark, Means Vs. Anti-Means; or the Trial of the Baptist Church Case in the Rush Circuit Court, 2nd corrected edition, Rushville, Ind., published 1895, page 75:
text: Show them that those who have defended the nation with the sword can control it by the ballot-box. Give no cowardly scamp an inch, or he will take a mile.
ref: 1865, H. Clay Graham, Hialmer's Recollections of the Great Rebellion, Containing Sketches of a Campaign in Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, […], Indianapolis, IN: H. C. Chandler, page 77:
text: Buy for them beautiful pictures, and encourage them to decorate their rooms each in his or her own childish way. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. Allow them the privilege and they will make your home beautiful.
ref: 1869 February, “The Family Circle: The Love of the Beautiful”, in I. W. Wiley, editor, The Ladies' Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature and Religion (new series; volume 3), volume 29, Cincinnati, OH: Hitchcock & Walden, page 153:
text: Undertake to make men of students by giving full immunities, and lawlessness, or perhaps we should say carelessness and indifference, results. "Give them an inch and they will take a mile," is the maxim that illustrates their course.
ref: 1870 March, “Editor's Table”, in The Yale Literary Magazine, volume 35, number 5, page 248:
text: Don't let us tempt the devil to tempt us. If we give Satan an inch, he will take a mile.
ref: 1881, Charles H. Spurgeon, John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People, Springfield, OH: Farm and Fireside, page 64:
text: If Kirishima-san had known the proverb about giving some people an inch and they take a mile, she would have applied it to Jack. The moment she showed the least sign of relenting from the stiff, almost solemn attitude she usually assumed when trying to teach him, and gave him the smallest word of approbation, he immediately took advantage of it.
ref: 1899 March, Onoto Watanna, “His Japanese Teacher”, in The Puritan, volume 5, number 2, page 212:
text: The North therefore felt herself often obliged to give way, which encouraged the South to take a mile the next time when we gave her an ell.
ref: 1902, Charles H. Fowler, Historical Romance of the American Negro, Baltimore: Thomas & Evans, page 222:
text: Let them know that even should they get the best of you now, that you will still be men and demand your rights as such. Never give an inch. If you do, the employer will take a mile.
ref: 1904 January, A. D. Clark, “Correspondence”, in The Bridgemen's Magazine, volume 3, number 6, page 30:
text: His language was not clear, but his intent was. To yield to his demands meant that he would take what money I had and perhaps do more mischief; give him an inch and he will take a mile.
ref: 1911, A. B. Snider, The Lone Traveler, Portland, OR, page 122:
text: The easy-going officers are perhaps our worst enemies. We all like them at the schools, and we all take a mile when they give us a foot.
ref: 1920 September, Harold E. Briggs, “Looking at the R. O. T. C.”, in Journal of the United States Artillery, volume 53, number 3, Fort Monroe, VA, page 250:
text: Hardly is a law on the statute books before someone proposes some way to improve it. People who distrust social security anyway are likely to complain about the entering wedge or to say, give an inch and they take a mile.
ref: 1945 August, A. J. Altmeyer, “The First Decade in Social Security”, in Social Security Bulletin, volume 8, number 8, page 6:
text: Give the aggressor an inch and he'll take a mile. Give him a country and he'll ask for a continent. Ten years ago, there were those who hoped to buy “peace in our time” from Hitler; Henry Wallace by the same course would have us today try to buy “peace in our time” from Stalin.
ref: 1948 April 8, Thomas E. Dewey, “America's No. 1 Problem—World Peace”, in Public Papers of Thomas E. Dewey Fifty-First Governor of the State of New York, State of New York, published 1948, (address at Dewey for President rally held in the University of Nebraska Coliseum, Lincoln, Nebraska), page 587:
text: Early in the trial respondent cautioned petitioner against “putting on a show” and added that “if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile. I might as well sit on him now.”
ref: 1974, “Taylor v. Hayes, Judge”, in United States Reports, volume 418, page 502:
text: However, now that you have given me the broad scope I will take advantage of it. When you give me an inch, I will take a mile!
ref: 1982 June 9, Scott Fennell, “Petroleum Incentives Program Act”, in House of Commons Debates, Official Report, First Session–Thirty-Second Parliament, 31 Elizabeth II, volume 16, Queen's Printer for Canada, page 18299, column 1:
glosses: Granting someone a limited concession will encourage them to take greater liberties.
Derived terms: give an inch
Related terms: in for a penny, in for a pound