rob Peter to pay Paul (English, verb)
expansion: rob Peter to pay Paul (third-person singular simple present robs Peter to pay Paul, present participle robbing Peter to pay Paul, simple past and past participle robbed Peter to pay Paul)
Senses:
glosses: To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
tags: idiomatic
Forms:
form: robs Peter to pay Paul
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: robbing Peter to pay Paul
tags: participle
present
form: robbed Peter to pay Paul
tags: participle
past
form: robbed Peter to pay Paul
tags: past
form: borrow from Peter to pay Paul
tags: alternative