what's not to like

what's not to like

English

Etymology

American origin, 1960s.[1]

Phrase

what's not to like?

1. (informal, rhetorical question, sometimes sarcastic) Rhetorically implying that what is spoken of is undoubtedly good.
   • 1964, William Hanna; Joseph Barbera, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear, spoken by Yogi Bear (Daws Butler):

     What's not to like about Robin Hood? I'll steal from the rich and give to a poor bear: me.

   • 2009, Linda Woodbridge, “Country Matters: As You Like It and the Pastoral-Bashing Impulse”, in Harold Bloom, editor, William Shakespeare: Comedies, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 23:

     […] –one would think that this comedy offered satisfactions for gender theorists, feminists, queer theorists, Marxists, and ecocritics alike. What's not to like in As You Like It?

   • 2012, Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained, spoken by Django (Jamie Foxx):

     Kill white people and get paid for it? What's not to like?

Translations

Translations

Finnish: mitä muuta voisi toivoa? French: que demander de plus ?, que demander de mieux ?, que demande le peuple ? (fr) German: was will man mehr?

References

1. Gary Martin (1997–), “What's not to like”, in The Phrase Finder.

Further reading

• “what's not to like”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “what's not to like” in the Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.