find out the hard way

English

Verb

find out the hard way

  1. To acquire knowledge through failure or any other undesirable experience.
    I don't know how well seatbelts protect you, but I certainly don't want to find out the hard way, so I use them either way.
    You can't assume that someone else will call an ambulance. I learnt that the hard way after crashing my bike.

Synonyms

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