get mileage out of

get mileage out of idiom
Make use of, obtain service from, as in The chorus got a lot of mileage out of that publicity, or You won't get much mileage out of that old TV set. This expression alludes to the number of miles of travel yielded by a given amount of fuel, a tire, or other auto equipment. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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