get blood out of a stone
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to obtain something from someone who is very unwilling to give it
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Không thể lấy được điều gì từ người rất không muốn cho
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: extract blood from a rock
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
She tried to get money out of her tightfisted uncle, but it was like getting blood out of a stone
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “get blood out of a stone” mean?
to obtain something from someone who is very unwilling to give it Literally: extract blood from a rock
Is “get blood out of a stone” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.