at the end of the day

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at the end of the day

1. (idiomatic) In summary; ultimately.
   • c. 1737–1754, Ebenezer Erskine, “The Sovereignty of Zion’s King. Being the Substance of Several Sermons, on Psal. ii. 6. The First Preached at Perth Before the Associate Presbytery, Thursday, Oct. 13. 1737, and Afterwards Enlarged upon at Stirling, for Some Sabbaths Thereafter.”, in The Whole Works of the Late Rev. Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, Minister of the Gospel at Stirling; Consisting of Sermons and Discourses, on the Most Important and Interesting Subjects, volume II, Edinburgh: D. Schaw and Co., for Alex. M‘Leran, , published 1798, section “The Second Sermon on This Text”, page 530:

     Christ’s flock is but a little flock, comparatively conſidered, Luke xii. 32. &c. They are but little in reſpect of their numbers. Indeed abſtractly conſidered, at the end of the day, they will make an “innumerable company, which no man can number;” but, viewed in compariſon of the wicked, they are but few: […]

   • 1991 August 5, Charles Krauthammer, “Why Arms Control Is Obsolete”, in Time:

     Arms control was always something between a sham and a sideshow. . . . t the end of the day, a democratic Russia integrated into the West becomes no more a nuclear threat to us than Britain or France.

   • 2009 February 24, Levi Folk, “'Goldilocks' dollar is happy here”, in Financial Post, Canada, retrieved 25 Feb. 2009:

     At the end of the day, it is commodities that will have the biggest impact on the Canadian dollar over the next year.

• (in summary; ultimately): ATEOTD, basically, essentially, in summary, in the end, to recap, to summarize, to sum up, when all is said and done; see also Thesaurus:in summary

• → German: am Ende des Tages (calque)
• → Spanish: al final del día (calque)

• in the cold light of day