- English translation
Whatever gets dropped, someone will pick it up.
- Literal wording
Every fallen thing, and there is one who picks it up.
- Meaning and lesson
In its everyday sense, the saying holds that whatever is offered will find someone who wants it. Fine things have their seekers, and so do shabby or inferior ones; no item, person, or opportunity is so lowly that it lacks a taker somewhere.
An older sense reads the dropped thing as a word let slip, with some listening ear ready to catch it. Understood this way, it urges care in speaking, since nothing said carelessly goes unheard. Speakers occasionally intend this caution, though the first sense is more usual; context shows which is meant.
- When it is used
Say it when something unremarkable or flawed still finds a buyer, partner, or admirer: tastes differ and nothing goes entirely unwanted. It can also warn that a careless remark will not pass unnoticed. Do not confuse it with the separate expression about sitting for the fallen and the picker-up.
- Register
- Colloquial, everyday speech
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Whatever gets dropped, someone will pick it up.