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• Half a loaf is better than none
  Half a loaf is better than none

  Something is better than nothing at all.
• half a loaf is better than none
  half a loaf is better than none

  Something is better than nothing, even if it is less than one wanted. For example, He had asked for a new trumpet but got a used one—oh well, half a loaf is better than none. This expression, often shortened, was already a proverb in 1546, where it was explicitly put: “For better is half a loaf than no bread.”

Half a loaf is better than none

Cultural  

1. Something is better than nothing at all.

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half a loaf is better than none Idioms  

1. Something is better than nothing, even if it is less than one wanted. For example, He had asked for a new trumpet but got a used one—oh well, half a loaf is better than none. This expression, often shortened, was already a proverb in 1546, where it was explicitly put: “For better is half a loaf than no bread.”

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Example Sentences

The incrementalist counsels patience: Something is better than nothing, half a loaf is better than none.

From New York Times • Jan. 26, 2022

"I think people realize half a loaf is better than none," Stewart said.

From Time • Aug. 7, 2017

Acting like a man who believes half a loaf is better than none.

From Time Magazine Archive

Now as half a loaf is better than none, the cotton manufacturers received a direct impulse by the partial removal of the obnoxious restriction, and very soon the supply was far ahead of the demand.

From The Story of the Cotton Plant by Wilkinson, Frederick

He could not know of the reward, however, and acting on the theory that half a loaf is better than none, Long Bill reached for his oars and pulled ashore.

From Prairie Flowers by Hendryx, James B. (James Beardsley)