free lunch

noun

food provided without charge in some bars and saloons to attract customers.

Informal. something given with no expectation of repayment, service, responsibility, etc.:

In politics there's no free lunch—everyone expects favors to be repaid.

Origin

1835-45

Examples from the web for free lunch

Some tireless employees are rewarded with a thank you note from the boss, maybe a free lunch or a small check.
Credit cards aren't a free lunch, and there's no reason that consumers should be fooled into thinking they are.
Two, there is no free lunch: you can't beat the market without taking on more risk.
No one in the history of the world has ever had a free lunch, either.
Many of these free lunch seminars are scams aimed at retirees.
Sorry guys, sometimes there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Or accelerating deployment of the next generation of nuclear energy, the one free lunch in all of energy generation.
Beyond that, additional children are almost a happiness free lunch.
The iron law of medicine is there's never-ever-a free lunch.
In physics, however, there's no such thing as a free lunch.

Slang definitions & phrases for free lunch

free lunch

noun phrase

Something had without paying for it; an uncompensated pleasure; a perquisite or gratuity •The date shows the first occurrence of the saloon-food sense mentioned in the etymology: pushing the free lunch

Related Terms

there's no free lunch

[1854+; fr the former custom of giving customers free food called free lunch in saloons]

Idioms and Phrases with free lunch

free lunch

Something acquired without due effort or cost. For example, In politics there is no free lunch; every favor calls for repayment. This expression alludes to the custom of taverns offering food free of charge to induce customers to buy drinks. It was soon extended to other kinds of gift but is often used in a negative way, as in the example. [ First half of 1800s ]