- English translation
If your partner insists on crossing you, take a loss yourself as long as he loses too.
- Literal wording
The contrary partner: lose, and make him lose.
- Meaning and lesson
When a partner keeps opposing and obstructing you, the proverb voices the urge to bring about his loss, even if the same blow falls on you as well. Shared damage is accepted as the price of making the uncooperative partner pay.
The saying captures a spiteful, scorched-earth attitude toward a failed partnership, not sound practical advice: once cooperation has broken down, harming the other side outweighs protecting oneself. A variant ending, 'and harm him', carries the same logic of retaliation regardless of mutual cost.
- When it is used
Suited to talk about partnerships or joint ventures that have soured, where one side resolves to punish an obstructive associate even at personal cost. It can describe such a stance, or be cited critically to point out how self-defeating that stance is.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: If your partner insists on crossing you, take a loss yourself as long as he loses too.