long run for a short slide
English edit
Etymology edit
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun edit
- A large expenditure of effort for a modest benefit.
- 1973, The Washingtonian[1], volume 8, page 98:
- “We don't give them or go to them unless asked by good friends, and as far as being a source of news,“ added the journalist, “I've never gotten one good story from a dinner party in my life. In that respect they're a long run for a short slide."
- 2004, Arnold Arem, In Our Hands: A Hand Surgeon's Tales of the Body's Most ...[2], page 204:
- For a small burn, with plenty of the patient's own skin available, allograft application is a long run for a short slide.
- 2013, Elizabeth Becker, Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism[3], page 339:
- The tour lasted exactly thirty minutes. Bill said that the trip was “a long run for a short slide.”