no strings attached

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See also: no-strings-attached

English

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WOTD – 28 May 2024

Etymology

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From strings (“(figurative) conditions, limitations, restrictions”), possibly from an old prank where a money purse with a hidden string would be placed on the ground, and pulled away when someone tried to pick it up.[1]

Pronunciation

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Phrase

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no strings attached

  1. (idiomatic, originally US, informal) Without conditions or obligations; without a catch.
    Synonyms: unconditionally, ziplessly
    For a friend I’ll help out for free, no strings attached.
    • 1883 March 24, “Current Topics. Marriage.”, in W. T. Baggett, editor, Pacific Coast Law Journal, […], volume XI, number 5, San Francisco, Calif.: Pacific Coast Law Printing and Publishing Co., […], →OCLC, pages 90–91:
      In the present century marriage is preceded by a betrothment, gifts are usually interchanged (but with no strings attached), and a causeless withdrawal therefrom by either party is considered infamous.
    • 1892 February 17, “Cartoons and Comments”, in H[enry] C[uyler] Bunner, editor, Puck, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Keppler & Schwarzmann, →OCLC, page 430, column 2:
      Mr. [James Gillespie] Blaine's declination—it is always understood that we assume there is no string attached to his letter—is undoubtedly a wise move on his part.
    • 1902 October, Jack London, chapter XXI, in A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 224:
      Listen. We've kept it quiet, but she's in with the elect on French Hill. Her claim's prospected the richest of the outfit. Present indication half a million at least. In her own name, no strings attached. Couldn't she take that and go anywhere in the world and reinstate herself?
    • 1919, Carolyn Wells, “Case Rivers”, in The Man Who Fell through the Earth, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC, page 170:
      "No," I assured him, after receiving his cordial welcome, "my offer had no string attached. I'm more than ready to help in any way I can, to find a niche for you in this old town and fit you into it. It doesn't matter where you hail from, or how you got here; New York is an all-comers' race, and the devil take the hindmost."
    • 1953 (date written), Sylvia Plath, “Initiation”, in Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams: And Other Prose Writings, London: Faber and Faber, published 1977, →ISBN, page 151:
      Would he ask her out (if he ever did) just for herself, no strings attached?
    • 1972 July 27, Andrew J[ohn] Biemiller, witness, “Statement of Andrew J. Biemiller, Director, Department of Legislation, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Accompanied by Nathaniel Goldfinger, Director, Research Department, and Arnold Cantor, Economist, Research Department”, in Revenue Sharing: Hearings before the Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Ninety-second Congress, Second Session on H.R. 14370 to Provide Payments to Localities for High-priority Expenditures, to Encourage the States to Supplement Their Revenue Sources, and to Authorize Federal Collection of State Individual Income Taxes […], Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 452:
      As to the $12 billion State share, there is not even the pretense of an attempt at congressional oversight, Federal control, or standards of performance. The State share is totally no-string attached.
    • 2005, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, chapter 20, in Slow Man, London: Vintage, →ISBN, page 151:
      'I asked him to think again. I asked him to put Drago's interests first. I repeated that there were no strings attached to my offer.' / 'No visible strings, you mean.'
    • 2013, Tim Myers, Melissa Sheppard (lyrics and music), “Bad Things”, in Dear You‎[1], performed by Meiko, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Calif.: Fantasy Records, published 2014, →OCLC:
      You say that you want / All of my love / But let's be honest, we don't need all that / I like it better with no strings attached
    • 2020 November 18, Richard Clinnick, “Network News: Emergency Funding Package of up to £1.8bn Agreed for TfL”, in Rail, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:
      He also criticised what he called the Government's "bailout" of the privatised rail companies with no strings attached, stating: "There is simply no reason why the same easy solution could not have been applied to London, […]."
    • 2021, Andrei Znamenski, “Regime of Goodness: Social Democracy and the Swedish Model, 1920s–1990s”, in Socialism as a Secular Creed: A Modern Global History, Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 205:
      When government delivers handouts with no string attached, more people naturally want to use and abuse them, which eventually ruins economy and drains a country's wealth. Essentially the welfare state destroys the ethic which sustains this very state.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “string”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading

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