Don’t Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

Here is the final phrase from our series on horse mouth idioms.  Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth means that you should always be grateful when someone give you a gift.  In this idiom, the gift is a horse.  Horses were very important through human history and receiving one as a gift was an honor.  As we have learned, you can find out how old a horse is by looking at their teeth (long in the tooth).  So, if you did this after receiving a horse as a gift, it would look like you don’t trust the gift-giver (straight from the horse’s mouth).  Instead, you should just be grateful and say, “thank you,” when someone gives you a gift.

Example: My grandfather gave me an ugly sweater for Christmas.  I am not going to complain because you should never look a gift horse in the mouth.  

This phrase is very old and dates back to at least 1546 when John Heywood wrote, "No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth.” (No man ought to look a given horse in the mouth) The phrase is likely much older than that.

Have you ever received a gift that you didn’t like?
What did you do?

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Reference:
https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/words-and-their-stories-dont-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth/4168731.html#:~:text=But%20we%20commonly%20use%20this,not%20exactly%20what%20you%20wanted.

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