IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM Definition & Meaning

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, if you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If you can't defeat your opponents you might be better off by switching to their side. For example, Seeing that no one else was willing to stick with the old software program, Marcia learned the new one, noting if you can't beat 'em, join 'em , or I opposed a new school library, but the town voted for it, so I'll support it—if you can't lick 'em, join 'em . This expression dates from about 1940 and originally alluded to political opponents. The opposite idea is expressed in an advertising slogan used in the 1960s and 1970s by a cigarette company, in which the smoker would fight rather than switch brands.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

This isn’t really a case of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

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This is not an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em moment.”

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“It’s not ‘If you can’t beat ‘em, join ’em,’” Harbert said.

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The unofficial “Christmas Convoy” appears to be guided by the concept that “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”

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In pinning a loss on the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani to sweep the Freeway Series, the Dodgers also sent a message: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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