have nothing to lose

present singular third person has nothing to lose · participle present having nothing to lose · participle past had nothing to lose · past had nothing to lose

1. To be in a situation that could improve by doing something and that will not be any worse if it fails.

   you have nothing to lose but your chains

   5 more examples

   to have nothing to lose and everything to gain

   They say that nothing is more dangerous than a man who has nothing to lose.

   When ya ain't got nothin', you got nothin' to lose

   1965, Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone”

   When there’s nothing to lose and nothing to prove, I’ll be dancing with myself; oh, oh, o-oh.

   1981 January 23, Billy Idol, Tony James, “Dancing with Myself”, in Kiss Me Deadly, performed by Generation X

   He is noted for coming up with his 'wager', in which he argued that he was prepared to believe in God on the grounds that he had nothing to lose if he was wrong, and everything to gain should he be right.

   2008, Peter Michael Higgins, Number Story: From Counting to Cryptography, page 141