givethemaninchandthey'lltakeanell

1. Archaic form ofgive them an inch and they'll take a mile.
   • 1546,John Heywood, chapter IX, in Julian Sharman, editor,The Proverbs of John Heywood. […], London:George Bell and Sons, […], published1874,→OCLC, part II,page161:

     I will yet thrive, (I say),as good is an ynch /As an ell. Yee can, (quoth shee), make it so well, / For whenI gave you an inch, you tooke an ell, / Till both ell and inch be gone, and we in det.

     The spelling has been modernized.

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