at the end of the day

at the end of the day

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

at the end of the day

1. (idiomatic) In summary; ultimately.
   • c. 1737–1754, Ebenezer Erskine, “The Sovereignty of Zion’s King. Being the Substance of Several Sermons, on Psal. ii. 6. The First Preached at Perth Before the Associate Presbytery, Thursday, Oct. 13. 1737, and Afterwards Enlarged upon at Stirling, for Some Sabbaths Thereafter.”, in The Whole Works of the Late Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, Minister of the Gospel at Stirling; Consisting of Sermons and Discourses, on the Most Important and Interesting Subjects, volume II, Edinburgh: […] D. Schaw and Co., […] for Alex. M‘Leran, […], published 1798, section “The Second Sermon on This Text”, page 530:

     Christ’s flock is but a little flock, comparatively conſidered, Luke xii. 32. &c. They are but little in reſpect of their numbers. Indeed abſtractly conſidered, at the end of the day, they will make an “innumerable company, which no man can number;” but, viewed in compariſon of the wicked, they are but few: […]

   • 1991, Charles Krauthammer, "Why Arms Control Is Obsolete," Time, 5 Aug.:

     Arms control was always something between a sham and a sideshow. . . . [A]t the end of the day, a democratic Russia integrated into the West becomes no more a nuclear threat to us than Britain or France.

   • 2009, Levi Folk, "'Goldilocks' dollar is happy here," Financial Post (Canada), 24 Feb. (retrieved 25 Feb. 2009):

     At the end of the day, it is commodities that will have the biggest impact on the Canadian dollar over the next year.

Synonyms

• (in summary; ultimately): ATEOTD, basically, essentially, in summary, in the end, to recap, to summarize, to sum up, when all is said and done; see also Thesaurus:in summary

Descendants

• → German: am Ende des Tages (calque)

Translations

in summary; ultimately

Arabic: فِي نِهايَةِ الْمَطاف‎ (fī nihāyati l-maṭāf) Catalan: al cap i a la fi (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 到頭來／到头来 (zh) (dàotóulái), 最終／最终 (zh) (zuìzhōng), 畢竟／毕竟 (zh) (bìjìng) Danish: til syvende og sidst, når alt kommer til alt Dutch: uiteindelijk (nl), aan het einde van de rit, op het einde van de rit Finnish: loppupeleissä, loppupelissä, lopulta (fi), kaiken kaikkiaan (fi) French: en fin de compte (fr), au final (fr), au bout du compte (fr) German: letzten Endes, am Ende des Tages (de) Greek: τελοσπάντων (telospánton) Hungarian: végső soron, végül is, végtére is Irish: i ndeireadh na dála Italian: per ultima cosa, in fin dei conti (it) Maltese: fl-aħħar tal-ġurnata, fi tmiem il-jum Polish: koniec końców (pl), ostatecznie (pl), w ostatecznym rozrachunku, na koniec dnia Portuguese: no fim das contas Russian: в конце́ концо́в (ru) (v koncé koncóv) Scottish Gaelic: aig a' cheann thall Spanish: al fin y al cabo, a fin de cuentas Swedish: i slutändan (sv), till syvende och sist (sv) Turkish: nihayetinde (tr) Welsh: yn y pen draw, pan ddaw hi'n gyfrif, ar derfyn y dydd

See also

• in the cold light of day