all duck or no dinner

alternative duck or no dinner · alternative no duck, no dinner

1. idiomaticAll or nothing.

   This is what might be termed an all-duck-or-no-dinner approach in which “a univocal meaning” containing no “ anti-liberationist❞ strain is sought.

   2006, Mark Gray, Rhetoric and Social Justice in Isaiah, page 223

   2 more examples

   "You know," said Bob, "they'll be pushing their luck getting across the tides of the Irish Sea. It's going to be all duck or no dinner for Captain Carlsen.”

   2004, Bill Cullen, It's a Long Way from Penny Apples

   The afternoon I moved out of home, my father said, 'You're all duck or no dinner', which still applies to me today, although I can sometimes moderate the extremes.

   2020, Ross Fitzgerald, Fifty Years Sober: An Alcoholic's Journey

   Synonyms: no fish, no dinner