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"An arm and a leg" means to cost a lot. The implication is that the price is similar to losing two of one's limbs. Often, it further implies that the cost is not only high, but unfairly inflated.

The likely source is that a seller is asking for an outrageous price (as in "I'd give my right arm "). A spurious explanation was a supposed policy of early portrait painters, who charged more to do full body portraits than for close-ups.

Example :

"Buying that car cost me an arm and a leg, but it sure is a beauty."

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9y ago

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