sake1

noun

/seɪk/

Idioms

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Word OriginOld English sacu ‘contention, crime’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zaak and German Sache, from a base meaning ‘affair, legal action, thing’. The phrase for the sake of may be from Old Norse.

Idioms

for Christ’s, God’s, goodness’, heaven’s, pity’s, etc. sake

used to emphasize that it is important to do something or when you are annoyed about something（强调重要或表示恼火）看在上帝分上，天哪，行行好吧，千万
- Do be careful, for goodness' sake.千万要小心。
- Oh, for heaven's sake!哎哟，天哪！
- For pity's sake, help me!行行好，帮帮我吧！
Some people find the use of Christ, God or heaven here offensive.

for old times’ sake

if you do something for old times’ sake, you do it because it is connected with something good that happened to you in the past看在旧日的情分上；念及老交情

for something’s sake

because of the interest or value something has, not because of the advantages it may bring为某事本身的缘故；鉴于某事本身的价值
- I believe in education for its own sake.我相信教育本身就是有价值的。
- art for art’s sake为艺术而艺术

for the sake of somebody/something | for somebody’s/something’s sake

in order to help somebody/something or because you like somebody/something为了某人（或某事）起见；因某人（或某事）的缘故
- They stayed together for the sake of the children.为了孩子，他们还待在一起。
- You can do it. Please, for my sake.这个你是能做的。求你了，就算为了我。
- I hope you're right, for all our sakes (= because this is important for all of us).我希望你没事，这对我们大家都好。

for the sake of something

in order to get or keep something为获得（或保持）某物
- The translation sacrifices naturalness for the sake of accuracy.这篇译文为求准确而牺牲了自然流畅。
- She gave up smoking for the sake of her health.为保持身体健康，她戒了烟。
- Let's suppose, for the sake of argument (= in order to have a discussion), that interest rates went up by 2 per cent.为了便于讨论，我们假设利率上升了2%。