at all costs (或 at any cost)

regardless of the price to be paid or the effort needed

不惜任何代價(jià)

he was anxious to avoid war at all costs.

他愿不惜一切代價(jià)來避免戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。

at cost

at cost price; without profit to the seller

按成本；以成本價(jià)

cost an arm and a leg

cost someone dear (或 dearly)

involve someone in a serious loss or a heavy penalty

使遭受嚴(yán)重?fù)p失；使受嚴(yán)懲

they were really bad mistakes on my part and they cost us dear.

這是我犯的嚴(yán)重錯(cuò)誤，使我們?cè)馐芰藰O大損失。

to someone's cost

with loss or disadvantage to someone

付出代價(jià)；吃苦頭

without programmes to play on it, the cleverest machine is useless—as some hardware manufacturers already know to their cost.

沒有節(jié)目可以播放，再好的機(jī)器也是無用的——這是一些硬件制造商的經(jīng)驗(yàn)教訓(xùn)。