you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink

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Idioms and Phrases

Even favorable circumstances won't force one to do something one doesn't want to, as in We've gotten all the college catalogs but he still hasn't applied—you can lead a horse to water . This metaphoric term dates from the 12th century and was in John Heywood's proverb collection of 1546. It is so well known that it is often shortened, as in the example.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“I think this case is about this old cliché, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink … The defendants can provide the funding, can provide the resources to the school districts, but ultimately the school districts are in charge of teaching the curriculum of the school,” attorney Thane Johnson said.

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You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink, Neel corrected, biting his lip so his anger wouldn’t make him say it aloud.

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He mentions the adage “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” then encourages us to “be the drinking horse. Make it happen.”

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“There’s that old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink,” said Graham Pruss, co-founder of the web app WeCount.

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“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.You cannot serve God and mammon

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