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Origin documented
“Give an inch and they'll take a mile”
What it means
A small concession invites a much larger demand.
Where it comes from
The contrast works because the two units sit so far apart: an inch is a thumb’s width, a mile is 63,360 of them.
How sure are we?
The original, recorded by John Heywood in 1546, was "give him an inch and he’ll take an ell". The ell was 45 inches, which makes the exaggeration considerably more modest than the modern version.