💼 “the bottom line”

What it means: The decisive number, point or conclusion.

“The bottom line: the repair costs more than the car.”

Where it comes from

Accounting: the bottom row of the income statement is net profit. The figurative sense (whatever it actually comes to) grew from it in late-20th-century business English.

← go the extra mile · all work & money idioms · be in the red →

be in the redback to the drawing boardburn the midnight oilpay through the nosego the extra mile

More phrases, including proverbs from dozens of languages, at Proverbs of the World.