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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

pick one's battles en · VERB

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic) To involve oneself in disputes only if one is likely to win.
  2. (idiomatic) To take a stand for a cause only if it is truly important enough to be worth the costs.
    • “[…]Jimmy Iovine, who runs Interscope, my record company, said, ‘Pick your battles carefully — don’t put your life at risk,’ but at the end of the day, I don’t see how you can shut up and just enjoy success when other people who don’t have the fame or the luxury to rent security guards are suffering.[…]” 2010 May 25, Lynn Hirschberg, quoting M.I.A., “M.I.A.’s Agitprop Pop”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
picks one's battles Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
picking one's battles Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
picked one's battles Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
picked one's battles Tense=Past lexicographic

Relateds

hill to die on · never fight a land war in Asia

Synonyms

choose one's battles

Translations (5)

pl uczestniczyć tylko w pewnych bitwach (to only involve oneself in disputes that one is likely to win) · fi valita taistelunsa (to only involve oneself in disputes that one is likely to win) · zh 選邊站 /选边站 (to only involve oneself in disputes that one is likely to win) · pl walczyć tylko w ważnych dla siebie sprawach (to only take a stand for a cause that is truly important to one) · fi valita taistelunsa (to only take a stand for a cause that is truly important to one)