no harm, no foul
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
No penalty or consequence for a minor infraction
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Không có hình phạt hoặc hậu quả cho một vi phạm nhỏ
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: no harm, no foul
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
He took a shortcut, but no harm, no foul, since he still arrived on time
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 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “no harm, no foul” mean?
No penalty or consequence for a minor infraction Literally: no harm, no foul
Is “no harm, no foul” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.