English Explanatory Dictionary

a chain is only as strong as its weakest link

English dictionary entry

Meanings

proverb
  1. An organization is only as strong or powerful as its weakest person; a group of associates is only as strong as its laziest member.

Word forms

a chain is only as strong as its weakest link a chain is as strong as its weakest link a chain is no stronger than its weakest link

Etymology

First appeared in Thomas Reid’s Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, published in 1786. The full idiom a chain is no stronger than its weakest link was first printed in Cornhill Magazine in 1868.

Related words

weakest link
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