Dictionary

rob Peter to pay Paul en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Unknown. Sometimes claimed to refer to Church taxes paid to Westminster Abbey (originally called Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster) that were sent to repair St. Paul's Cathedral in the mid 1500s, though records exist of the phrase since about 1450.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.
   • [I]t would be robbing Peter to pay Paul, for the government to pay a stamp-duty to itself. 1838, Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, volume 17, number 98, London, page 224:
   • 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter VIII. "The Highland Light", page 140. Perhaps what the Ocean takes from one part of the Cape it gives to another,—robs Peter to pay Paul.
   • OMB decided that a large part of the money would come from other health programs for poor women and children. That penny-pinching tactic sparked an outcry. […] Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri denounced the plan as pitting "one city's babies against another city's babies." Florida Governor Lawton Chiles, who chairs the National Commission to Prevent Infant Mortality, said it amounted to "robbing Peter to pay Paul." 1991 April 8, Priscilla Painton et al., “Mere Millions For Kids”, in Time, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013:
   • […] and so levelling up is not a jam-spreading operation, it’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul, it[']s not zero sum it’s win win for the whole United Kingdom and so here is the plan for levelling up. 2021 July 15, Boris Johnson, The Prime Minister's Levelling Up speech:

Forms

Relateds

Ponzi scam · pyramid scheme · Ponzi scheme

Translations (13)

ur احمد کی پگڑی محمود کے سر پر (to use resources producing no net gain) · gl desvestir un santo para vestir outro (to use resources producing no net gain) · cmn 补西墙 (to use resources producing no net gain) · cmn 拆東牆，補西牆 /拆东墙 (to use resources producing no net gain) · da tage fra den ene og give til den anden (to use resources producing no net gain) · da give med den ene hånd og tage med den anden (to use resources producing no net gain) · pl zabrać jednemu, żeby dać drugiemu (to use resources producing no net gain) · sv ge med den ena handen och ta med den andra (to use resources producing no net gain) · fr déshabiller Pierre pour habiller Paul (to use resources producing no net gain) · nl vestzak-broekzakoperatie (to use resources producing no net gain) · fi siirtää rahaa taskusta toiseen (to use resources producing no net gain) · pt despir um santo para vestir outro (to use resources producing no net gain) · cs vytkloukat klín klínem (to use resources producing no net gain)

wikipedia: Westminster Abbey · wikipedia: St. Paul's Cathedral