Explore Arabic traditional proverbsReviewed 2026-10-28
Meaning: Verified- English translation
Give something up, and you will have to live without it.
- Literal wording
Whoever leaves a thing lives without it.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying links relinquishing something with losing it. When a person lets a thing go, it stops being part of what they have, and the act of leaving it is what removes it from their life.
The weight falls on what comes afterward: the person carries on with that thing absent. Whatever it supplied is no longer available, so life continues in a state of doing without it.
- When it is used
Fits remarks about a person who has given something up and now has to go without it. The saying names that consequence directly, linking the act of letting go to the lack that follows.
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- Colloquial Arabic
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How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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