five will get you ten

English

Etymology

Betting parlance for even odds, i.e. betting five pounds (dollars, etc.) should win you ten.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Phrase

five will get you ten

1. (idiomatic) I strongly believe.

   Synonym: ten will get you twenty

   • 1948, Rex Stout, And Be a Villain:

     Five will get you ten that your sheet will have an editorial on the Orchard case Sunday, and what will it say?

   • 1957, Clyde Brion Davis, Unholy Uproar:

     Five will get you ten that he's either gone or dead by midnight Sunday.

   • 1983 December 3, Jolanta Benal, “Spandex, Sousa, Bad Politics”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 20, page 6:

     She has a nice strong tone that falters just a bit in the upper ranges; five'll get you ten that problem clears up as soon as [she] gets completely comfortable with performing publicly.

   • 2003, F. Winston Pate, Serenity:

     As it is I'm going to be in big trouble financially if I lose my job and five will get you ten the bastards will try to drum me out.

Translations

I strongly believe

• Hungarian: nyakamat rá, a nyakam(at) teszem/tenném rá, mérget vehetsz rá
• Polish: założę się