swings and roundabouts
a balanced, no-win, no lose situation
TRANSLATION
it's swings and roundabouts = es ist gehupft wie gesprungen, etwas hat gleich viele Vor- und Nachteile --- GOOGLE INDEX swings and roundabouts: approximately 500,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"IT'S SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS. He could get very unlucky for the next few races, so we're not going to give up."
(British Formula 1 driver Jenson Button)
---
"What happens overseas is important but not life threatening and Australian banks are showing their ability to withstand challenges. The SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS seen in other international bank earnings are very different to our own," Mr Esho added.
(International Business Times)
(British Formula 1 driver Jenson Button)
---
"What happens overseas is important but not life threatening and Australian banks are showing their ability to withstand challenges. The SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS seen in other international bank earnings are very different to our own," Mr Esho added.
(International Business Times)
Did you
know?
swings and roundabouts
idiom
- a situation in which different actions or options result in no eventual gain or loss
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
The expression "swings and roundabouts" is a shortened version of the fairground proverb "What you lose on the swings, you win on the roundabouts." The idea here is that when operating a fairground, even though you don't make much money on the swings, you can make up for it on the roundabouts (merry-go-round), which are more profitable (why the roundabouts might be more profitable is unclear).
This phrase expresses the concept that while life has its ups and downs, its pros and cons, its advantages and disadvantages, in the end everything always balances out.
Irish poet Patrick Chalmers addressed this topic in his classic work "Roundabouts and Swings," which tells the story of a man who comes across a travelling fair on the road. He asks one of the workers if there are riches to be had with a fairground. The worker then philosophises about his job, which becomes a metaphor for life:
"I find things very much as I've always found them,
For mostly they goes up and down or else goes round and round.
The job's exactly like it always was,
It's bread and bacon mostly when the dog don't catch a hare,
But looking at it broad, and while it's no merchant king's,
What's lost upon the roundabouts we pull up on the swings!"
---
SYNONYMS
6 of one and half a dozen of the other, ups and downs, pros and cons, life is a rollercoaster
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The stock market is a swings and roundabouts game with no guarantee of profit."
idiom
- a situation in which different actions or options result in no eventual gain or loss
(Oxford English Dictionary)
---
The expression "swings and roundabouts" is a shortened version of the fairground proverb "What you lose on the swings, you win on the roundabouts." The idea here is that when operating a fairground, even though you don't make much money on the swings, you can make up for it on the roundabouts (merry-go-round), which are more profitable (why the roundabouts might be more profitable is unclear).
This phrase expresses the concept that while life has its ups and downs, its pros and cons, its advantages and disadvantages, in the end everything always balances out.
Irish poet Patrick Chalmers addressed this topic in his classic work "Roundabouts and Swings," which tells the story of a man who comes across a travelling fair on the road. He asks one of the workers if there are riches to be had with a fairground. The worker then philosophises about his job, which becomes a metaphor for life:
"I find things very much as I've always found them,
For mostly they goes up and down or else goes round and round.
The job's exactly like it always was,
It's bread and bacon mostly when the dog don't catch a hare,
But looking at it broad, and while it's no merchant king's,
What's lost upon the roundabouts we pull up on the swings!"
---
SYNONYMS
6 of one and half a dozen of the other, ups and downs, pros and cons, life is a rollercoaster
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"The stock market is a swings and roundabouts game with no guarantee of profit."
