Jump To:

• All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
  All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

  A person who never takes time off from work becomes boring and bored.
• all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy)
  all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy)

  Hard work without time for recreation is not good for one's health, as in If Harry keeps up that grueling schedule, he's headed for a breakdown—all work and no play isn't healthy. A proverb included in James Howell's collection of 1659, this phrase remains so familiar that it is often shortened, as in the example.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Cultural  

1. A person who never takes time off from work becomes boring and bored.

---

all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy) Idioms  

1. Hard work without time for recreation is not good for one's health, as in If Harry keeps up that grueling schedule, he's headed for a breakdown—all work and no play isn't healthy. A proverb included in James Howell's collection of 1659, this phrase remains so familiar that it is often shortened, as in the example.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy)

He said he believed in the old saying: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

From Dubliners by James Joyce

He went humming on as he examined the sweetmeats a favourite proverb of his, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

From The Crown of Success by A. L. O. E.

Perpetual amusement-seeking: brings ennui, satiety, and disgust.—"All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy," is as true as that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

From Practical Ethics by William De Witt Hyde

All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy, We were not made to be delving forever with tools in close rooms.

From Heart-Histories and Life-Pictures by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

The familiar maxim, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," contains a vast amount of truth.

From The Young Man in Business by Edward William Bok

I just don't really feel like it at the moment because all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

From New York Times ● Apr. 17, 2018

For if "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," what does the reverse do for him?

From Records of Later Life by Fanny Kemble

Is it true that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?

From The Mind and Its Education by George Herbert Betts

Oh," said Rolfe, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

From A Terrible Temptation A Story of To-Day by Charles Reade

All men need a holiday, for "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

From Dramatic Reader for Lower Grades by Florence Holbrook