belt-and-suspenders

adjective

US

: involving or employing multiple methods or procedures to achieve a desired result especially out of caution or fear of failure

A small, personal estate-planning company accurately applied belt-and-suspenders thinking when it created an instructional service for insurance salesmen to teach them how to "push" its financial plans.

—Mack Hanan, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1976

These are belt-and-suspenders kinds of investments.

—Thomas P. Murphy, Forbes, 25 Dec. 1978

We worked out a belt-and-suspenders conservative way of protecting the well that I think in the final analysis would have satisfied everyone.

—J. Daniel Lugosch, Business Worcester, 18 Apr. 1988

If you're smart, you will first park your winnings in a money market mutual fund or a money market account at a bank … . (If you're the belt-and-suspenders type, you could open multiple accounts to get all your money covered.)

—New York Times, 6 Feb. 2000

Word History

First Known Use

1958, in the meaning defined above

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Rhymes for belt-and-suspenders

• attenders
• bartenders
• contenders
• defenders
• extenders
• offenders
• pretenders
• surrenders
• suspenders
• benders
• blenders
• fenders