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can't fight City Hall
Idioms and Phrases
Unable to overcome bureaucratic rules, as in Brad couldn't get a permit without going through channels—you can't fight City Hall! This term transfers the seat of city government to a more general sense of bureaucracy in any sphere. [Mid-1800s]Example Sentences
You can undoubtedly imagine some of the responses: "You can't fight City Hall!"
The saying “You can’t fight City Hall” captures the immovable nature of government bureaucracy.
“You can’t fight City Hall,” O’Malley said, but Rising proved his mettle to the team owner in the failed campaign.
As an old saying goes, you can't fight city hall, meaning government.
Casting a skeptical eye on the possibility of democratic reforms in China, “Lost Course” makes for a bleak illustration of the adage that you can’t fight city hall — or in this case, a village committee, if the committee is part of a much larger system.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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