bet the farm
verbEtymology
Possibly nothing more than a case of real estate as wager stakes, but also plausibly because farmers cannot avoid gambling and the stakes are financial ruin: they must make many decisions (such as which crops to plant each year, and how to manage livestock), and outside factors such as weather or changing commodity markets can dash their hopes. Thus, when making a decision they must ask themselves whether they are confident enough to bet the farm as the wager stakes.
Definitions
To be absolutely certain, to have no doubts.
- I'd be surprised if those two are still dating come Christmas, but I'm not betting the farm on a breakup just yet.
To make a substantial wager or risk.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for bet the farm. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA