What does squeeze someone like a lemon mean?
Squeezing someone like a lemon is exploiting them completely.
To exploit a person is to get the most out of him without worrying about anything about him. And we do not hesitate to reject it as soon as we have obtained the most possible profit from it. It's comparable to the lemon that you throw in the trash after extracting all the juice.
The exploiter then hurries to find another good apple to exploit (another fine lemon to squeeze).
The expression seems to appear at the beginning of the 20th century. Here are the first examples:
- Political Democracy (1907): “And competition thus demands of all employers that the worker — according to the English expression — be squeezed like a lemon, a lemon that is thrown away”
- “History of Peace Treaty Breaches” (1923): “Has it ever been thought that a people of 60 million souls can be squeezed like a lemon under a peace treaty?”
Attention ! not to be confused with the expression “to squeeze the lemon“.
Candied lemon for tagine - 120g
Price
€6.66
Pearls of lemon and pepper flavors - 90g
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