no ifs or buts

Idioms  

1. Also, no ifs, ands, or buts. No reservations, restrictions, or excuses, as in You'd better be there tomorrow, and no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This expression uses the conjunctions to stand for the conditions and objections that they introduce. The earliest phrase to appear was ifs and ands in the 1600s. This phrase is actually an emphatic redundancy, for and often meant “if.” But was tacked on to this pair soon afterward.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

no ifs or buts

The Post Office minister said the sum was being offered "no ifs or buts".

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2023

"Let me be quite clear, there are no ifs or buts in our commitment to the 2% inflation target," Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said last year.

From Reuters ● Jan. 30, 2023

"Let me be quite clear, there are no ifs or buts in our commitment to the 2% inflation target. That's our job, and that's what we will do," the Governor will say.

From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2022

Who’s there to look adoringly at you, no ifs or buts?

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2022

But there it was, on Page One, with no ifs or buts: the Metropolitan Opera had called it quits for the 1948-49 season.

From Time Magazine Archive