"take advantage of"...any infml term?
- Thread starter Mehrgan
- Start date
- Views : 4,623
- Status
Raymott
VIP Member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2008
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- Australia
- Current Location
- Australia
There are quite a few meanings of "take advantage of".
"To take advantage of a job opportunity" would have different informal alternatives than "to take advantage of a girl who is drunk" or "to take advantage of naive customers by overcharging them."
You could check a thesaurus for "exploit, utilize, employ, abuse, misuse..."
What's the context?
Mehrgan
Key Member
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2009
- Member Type
- Other
- Native Language
- Persian
- Home Country
- Iran
- Current Location
- Iran
Hi,
Thanks for the reply...Taking advantage of a "Mr nice guy". Say, when you give lots of responsibilities to a person whom you think can't reject,...Thanks again.
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Location
- Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
- Member Type
- Retired English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- UK
In this context you might be able to use the rather cynical advice - 'never give a sucker an even break' (='take as much advantage as you can of people who are gullible'). That suggests a verb that you could use for an informal version of 'take advantage of' - 'to sucker' (='make a sucker of').
b
b
Raymott
VIP Member
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2008
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- Australia
- Current Location
- Australia
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Location
- Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
- Member Type
- Retired English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- UK
:up: You can also be 'suckered into doing something', and 'sucker' is also used in the composite word 'suckerpunch' (noun) - ='a blow that takes advantage of a sucker'.
b
b
- Status
