Meaning
To be extremely expensive; to demand an exorbitant, painful price. Informal and hyperbolic, used about purchases, bills, repairs, and fees, framing a high price as something you could only pay by sacrificing body parts. Informal and hyperbolic; a standard way to complain about prices without implying genuine financial ruin. Regional use: General English (American origin).
Origin
An American coinage of the years just after World War II. The earliest print record found by The Phrase Finder is a December 1949 food column in the Long Beach Independent advising homemakers how to say 'Merry Christmas' without it costing 'an arm and a leg'; the OED's first citation, quoted by Grammarphobia, is Billie Holiday's 1956 autobiography 'Lady Sings the Blues'. The widely circulated story that portrait painters charged by the limb is folk etymology with no supporting evidence. What is documented is a pair of older expressions of extravagant willingness to sacrifice: 'I would give my right arm' (print example from 1849) and 'if it takes a leg' (1875). The modern phrase plausibly blends the two, and news coverage of war amputees may have given the blend its sting in the late 1940s, though that final step remains conjecture rather than documented fact.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- an arm and a leg
- costs an arm and a leg
- give an arm and a leg
- pay an arm and a leg
- worth an arm and a leg
Usage Examples
- Renting a crane for the day cost us an arm and a leg, but the job couldn't wait.
- Designer handbags cost an arm and a leg, so she saves for months before buying one.
- The roof repairs ended up costing the co-op an arm and a leg and wiped out the reserve fund.