To save this word, you'll need to log in.
Definition of belt-and-suspenders
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
Keep scrolling for more
Comments on belt-and-suspenders
What made you want to look up belt-and-suspenders? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Test Your Vocabulary
January 2020 Words of the Day Quiz
- Which is a synonym of bonhomie?
Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridgedWords at Play
Ask the Editors
Word Games
- January 2020 Words of the Day Quiz
Word of the Day quiz returns (again!)
Take the quiz - Intact Latin Quiz
What did each of these words mean to ancient Romans?
Take the quiz - Spell It
Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
Take the quiz - Syn City
Build a city of skyscrapers—one synonym at a time.
Play the game
Share belt-and-suspenders
Time Traveler for belt-and-suspenders
The first known use of belt-and-suspenders was in 1958
See more words from the same year