in for a penny, in for a pound

If one has committed to doing something, one will or should do it completely, and not spare any effort. A shortening of the phrase "in for a penny, in for a pound." We can't turn in a half-finished report, so we need to stay up all night and get it done. In for a penny, in for a pound.

If one has committed to doing something, one will or should do it completely, and not spare any effort. We can't turn in a half-finished report, so we need to stay up all night and get it done. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Once involved, one must not stop at half-measures. For example, All right, I'll drive you all the way there-in for a penny, in for a pound. This term originally meant that if one owes a penny one might as well owe a pound, and came into American use without changing the British monetary unit to dollar. [Late 1600s] For a synonym, see hanged for a sheep.

You say in for a penny, in for a pound to show that you are definitely going to continue with something, even if it means more effort or money. `We probably should have stopped at that point,' Margaret says, `but we had already invested so much, and as they say, in for a penny, in for a pound.'

Do not stop at half-measures; once involved, even a little, one is involved a lot. This term, which originally meant that if one owes a penny one might as well owe more, dates from the seventeenth century. Thomas Ravenscroft wrote, “Well, that, O’er shooes, o’er boots, And In for a penny, in for a Pound” (The Canterbury Guests, 1695, 5.1). It was quoted over and over. Dickens, always intrigued with debt, used it in at least three of his novels (Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, The Old Curiosity Shop). Today it is common mostly in Britain and Ireland, where the pound is a unit of currency, but it is still occasionally heard in America.