five will get you ten

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Betting parlance for even odds, i.e. betting five pounds (dollars, etc.) should win you ten.

Pronunciation[edit]

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Phrase[edit]

five will get you ten

  1. (idiomatic) I strongly believe.
    Synonym: ten will get you twenty
    • 1948, Rex Stout, And Be a Villain:
      Five will get you ten that your sheet will have an editorial on the Orchard case Sunday, and what will it say?
    • 1957, Clyde Brion Davis, Unholy Uproar:
      Five will get you ten that he's either gone or dead by midnight Sunday.
    • 1983 December 3, Jolanta Benal, “Spandex, Sousa, Bad Politics”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 6:
      She has a nice strong tone that falters just a bit in the upper ranges; five'll get you ten that problem clears up as soon as [she] gets completely comfortable with performing publicly.
    • 2003, F. Winston Pate, Serenity:
      As it is I'm going to be in big trouble financially if I lose my job and five will get you ten the bastards will try to drum me out.

Translations[edit]