all-or-nothing
Americanadjective
Etymology
Origin of all-or-nothing
First recorded in 1755–65
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But the United States is deploying a blunt, all-or-nothing approach.
From Slate • Feb. 13, 2026
In time, the exchange hopes, investors in its all-or-nothing options will graduate to trades involving more sophisticated contracts.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 2, 2026
It creates an all-or-nothing approach that is extremely hard to stick to.
From BBC • Dec. 26, 2025
“Get used to, on some of these hard days, selling out a little bit of your positions. I think people look at it like it’s an all-or-nothing proposition,” Kailas said.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 7, 2025
And the process was an all-or-nothing one; either you failed to modify at all, or else you modified the whole way.
From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
