"put all my chances on one card "?
Replies: 17 - Last Post: Dec 9, 2012 2:57 AM Last Post By: JenniferJ
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"put all my chances on one card "?
I am looking for an expression, something like "put all my money on one card ". The context is that of a man deserting the army, saddam hussein's army in 1990. he said "They first sent us on training to the north of the country. The training camp was 60 kilometers from the Turkish border. I decided to {put all my chances on one card} and escape across the mountains. I thought, either they catch me at the border and shoot me as a deserter, or I go to Kuweit, and they shoot me in the war."I think this can be said better than "put all my money on one card". he was actually putting his life on the line, so talk about money sounds a bit trivial.
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The first things that come to my mind is "to put it all" or "to risk it all" or "to risk everything."I was a bit puzzled at first, by "one card," as I didn't immediately connect it with gambling. It might be clearer to say "I decided to risk everything on one roll of the dice." Or, prehaps, "I decided to take one big gamble."
You could also say "to put all my eggs in one basket," which is a common idiom, but does not have the connotation of risking one's physical safety.
(A group lost their lives fleeing from Spain into France over a single rickety bridge that collapsed, because they tried to put all their Basques in one exit.)
7
I think horseracing expressions are more common than cardplaying in Britain. So you could say "put it all (or everything) on one horse". But why stick to standard expression or cliché, surely a good writer would devise his own striking metaphor or simile? Think of some dangerous one-way trip or do-or-die experience or something that can be economically expressed, and use that.The exit-constrained Basques are known to every schoolchild. I saw a different Basque quip this week that made be laugh perhaps because I hadn't see it before. Referring to urban riots, someone asked why the rioters would break into Anne Summers (a seller of erotic lingerie), getting the answer that perhaps they were Basque separatists.
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"Think of some dangerous one-way trip or do-or-die experience or something that can be economically expressed, and use that."i can hardly think of a metaphor that could be stronger than escaping across the mountains, risking your life, in order to save your life... if i use a creative bungee jumping metaphor that only trivializes the actual experience.
i did go for "roll of the dice". i am putting the words into someone's mouth anyway, so i am just trying to say what needs to be said
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"The exit-constrained Basques are known to every schoolchild. I saw a different Basque quip this week that made be laugh perhaps because I hadn't see it before. Referring to urban riots, someone asked why the rioters would break into Anne Summers (a seller of erotic lingerie), getting the answer that perhaps they were Basque separatists. "I am drunk right now, but I really do not get that.
What is "exit-constrained"?
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What is "exit-constrained"?
My joke is about a group of Basques who have only one way to leave Spain--a bridge. So they are constrained as to how they can exit. Constrained = limited, restricted.iviehoff either made up the word "exit-constrained" or remembered it from some IT context, but the meaning is clear in context
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