Take the bitter with the sweet
Accept life's misfortunes as well as its joys.
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Take the bitter with the sweet
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take the bitter with the sweet
take the bitter with the sweetAccept adversity as well as good fortune, as in Although he got the job, he hadn't counted on having to work with Matthew; he'll just have to take the bitter with the sweet. This idiom uses bitter for “bad” and sweet for “good,” a usage dating from the late 1300s. It was first recorded in John Heywood's 1546 proverb collection. For a synonym, see take the rough with the smooth.
Take the bitter with the sweet
Cultural
take the bitter with the sweet
Idioms
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.
"The point of the bankruptcy process is to take the bitter with the sweet," he said.
From Reuters ● Apr. 4, 2023
But when you buy into an blogging autodidact — especially one as subtly funny and dark as Mr. Romenesko — you take the bitter with the sweet.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2011
In racing, you must take the bitter with the sweet.
From Time Magazine Archive
It seemed hard, after tasting of the sweets of official position, to be returned to the ranks, but I had to take the bitter with the sweet, and a soldier must not kick.
From How Private George W. Peck Put Down The Rebellion or, The Funny Experiences of a Raw Recruit - 1887 by Peck, George W. (George Wilbur)
But he felt quite proud of marryin' such a aristocratic woman, and so he had to take the bitter with the sweet.
From Samantha at the World's Fair by Grimm, Baron C. de
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.
