Robbing Peter to pay Paul
- Robbing Peter to pay Paul
Robbing Peter to pay Paul is an English idiom referring to taking money (or other thing) from one party to pay one's debt to another. In other words, the idiom usually means to take money for one thing and use it for another.
The expression 'rob Peter to pay Paul' dates to John Wycliffe's 'Select English Works,' (1380).
It was included in John Heywood's (1546) collection of proverbs: 'To rob Peter to pay Paul.' George Herbert listed it in his collection (1640) as 'Give not Saint Peter so much, to leave Saint Paul nothing.' Appears in the United States in 'Thomas Hutchinson Papers' (1657).
A similar expression exists in many langages:
* French: 'Découvrir saint Pierre pour couvrir saint Paul', 'déshabiller Pierre pour habiller Paul' and other variants, ('Strip Peter to clothe Paul')
* Spanish: 'Desnudar a un santo para vestir a otro' ('To undress one saint to dress another')
* German: 'Dem Peter nehmen und dem Paul geben' (German, 'To take from Peter and give to Paul').
It may refer to the Apostles Peter and Paul, and may be derived from a 12th-century Latin expression: "As it were that one would crucify Paul in order to redeem Peter.", though another supposed source is the use of funds from Westminster Abbey (The Collegiate Church of St Peter) to pay for the construction of St Paul's Cathedral
References
* cite book
title = Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
author = Robert Hendrickson
publisher = Fact on File
location = New York
year = 1997
* cite book
title = Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings
author = Gregory Y. Titelman
publisher = Random House
location = New York
year = 1996
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Look at other dictionaries:
rob Peter to pay Paul — {v. phr.} To change one duty or need for another; take from one person or thing to pay another. * /Bill owed Sam a dollar, so he borrowed another from Joe to pay Sam back. He robbed Peter to pay Paul./ * /Trying to study a lesson for one class… … Dictionary of American idioms
rob Peter to pay Paul — {v. phr.} To change one duty or need for another; take from one person or thing to pay another. * /Bill owed Sam a dollar, so he borrowed another from Joe to pay Sam back. He robbed Peter to pay Paul./ * /Trying to study a lesson for one class… … Dictionary of American idioms
rob Peter to pay Paul — 1. To deprive one person in order to satisfy another 2. To raise a loan to pay off a debt • • • Main Entry: ↑rob * * * rob Peter to pay Paul phrase to take money that was intended for one particular thing and spend it on something else Thesaurus … Useful english dictionary
rob Peter to pay Paul — If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you try to solve one problem, but create another in doing so, often through short term planning. (Dorking School Dictionary) *** If someone robs Peter to pay Paul, they pay one debt with money borrowed… … English Idioms & idiomatic expressions
rob\ Peter\ to\ pay\ Paul — v. phr. To change one duty or need for another; take from one person or thing to pay another. Bill owed Sam a dollar, so he borrowed another from Joe to pay Sam back. He robbed Peter to pay Paul. Trying to study a lesson for one class during… … Словарь американских идиом
rob Peter to pay Paul — take from one person or thing to pay another When the government began to take money from education to pay for the medical system it was like robbing Peter to pay Paul … Idioms and examples
rob Peter to pay Paul — verb 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,… … Wiktionary
rob Peter to pay Paul — to borrow money from someone in order to give to someone else the money that you already owe them. Then I d take out another loan to pay my debts, robbing Peter to pay Paul … New idioms dictionary
Peter — PHRASE: rob inflects (disapproval) If you say that someone is robbing Peter to pay Paul, you mean that they are transferring money from one group of people or place to another, rather than providing extra money. Sometimes he was moving money from … English dictionary
Wrong — (Roget s Thesaurus) < N PARAG:Wrong >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 wrong wrong Sgm: N 1 what ought not to be what ought not to be what should not be Sgm: N 1 malum in se malum in se Sgm: N 1 unreasonableness unreasonableness grievance Sgm: N 1 shame … English dictionary for students
