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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

"Yes, but half a loaf is better than none," rejoined Airey, "and these young ladies are not so bad when one is in the humor to be amused."

From Honor Edgeworth Ottawa's Present Tense by Vera, [pseud.]

—Any loafer will tell you that half a loaf is better than none.

From Golden Days for Boys and Girls Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 by Elverson, James