Meaning
Someone who is granted a small concession will presume upon it and try to seize a far bigger advantage. Typically a warning against leniency toward people who are likely to abuse it, whether children, tenants or negotiating partners. Informal-to-neutral; almost always resentful or precautionary in tone. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Recorded in John Heywood's 1546 collection of English proverbs as 'Give him an inch and he'll take an ell', the ell being an old cloth-measuring unit of about 45 inches. As the ell died out of everyday use, speakers substituted the far larger mile for greater effect: the American Heritage Idioms Dictionary (via Dictionary.com) dates the mile version to about 1900, and Wikipedia's Mile article describes the familiar wording as a corruption of the ell original. The underlying warning, that small concessions invite large demands, is common across European proverb traditions, and later handbooks record parallels in Spanish and Gaelic.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Give an inch and take a mile
- Give him an inch and he'll take a yard
- Give him an inch and he'll take an ell
- Give them an inch and they'll take a mile
Usage Examples
- Let the children stay up fifteen minutes late and they will demand an hour - give them an inch and they'll take a mile.
- The landlord granted one rent-free month, and the tenant, taking a mile from an inch, stopped paying entirely.
- In treaty talks, delegations that yield an inch on fishing rights often watch a mile being taken.