Meanings
- Said when reluctantly acceding to a demand in order to stop being pestered about it.
'I perceive,' said John. 'Well, I saw I was in for it, and had nothing for it but to go through with it. Anything for a quiet life.'
1895, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Heartsease: Or, The Brother's Wife, page 72 more examples
The king lives like any other landowner, on the produce of his own plantation, and the rent which his poor relations pay him in kind. Occasionally, when these fail him, he suggests how becoming it would be in his people if they were to bring him an offering of food, or even money, and they, mindful of the manner in which their liege lord attained his present dignity, murmur, "Anything for a quiet life," and hasten to stop his mouth.
1902, Basil Home Thomson, Savage Island, Chapter 3The temper of him! O, he was a man already was little Tommy Caffrey since he was out of pinnies. Edy told him no, no and to be off now with him and she told Cissy Caffrey not to give in to him. —You’re not my sister, naughty Tommy said. It’s my ball. But Cissy Caffrey told baby Boardman to look up, look up high at her finger and she snatched the ball quickly and threw it along the sand and Tommy after it in full career, having won the day. —Anything for a quiet life, laughed Ciss.
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 1: Telemachus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part I [Telemachia], page 13
Cite this entry
anything for a quiet life. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anything%20for%20a%20quiet%20life
“anything for a quiet life.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anything%20for%20a%20quiet%20life. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “anything for a quiet life,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/anything%20for%20a%20quiet%20life.
Source: anything for a quiet life on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.