only game in town | Idiomator

Meaning: (idiomatic,almost always preceded bythe)The onlyopportunity,activity, orresourceavailable.1973,Stanley Elkin,Searches & Seizures: Three Novellas, Boston, Mass.: Nonpareil Books,David R. Godine, Publisher,→ISBN,page265:It was the first elected position he had ever held, his single incumbency and, he had to admit, his best prospect, theonly game in town.1995November 12, Adam Rogers, “Now for someHotjava”, inNewsweek‎[1], retrieved1 January 2014:Javawon't long be theonly game in town.Microsoftalready plans to publish a rival software, code-namedBlackbird.1999November, Rebecca Rohan, “Beyond the browser wars: Navigator and Explorer aren't the only games in town”, inBlack Enterprise, volume30, number 3, New York, N.Y.:Earl G. Graves Publishing,→ISSN,page48:If you surf the Web, chances are you're using some version of eitherNetscape Navigatoror MicrosoftInternet Explorer.[…]But contrary to popular belief, they aren't theonly games in town. While the two combatants offer great interfaces and features, there is something to be said for taking the road less traveled.1999December 12, “Will the yen's surge do Japan in?”, inBusinessWeek‎[2], retrieved1 January 2014:When exports are theonly game in town, currency gyrations can be a killer.2007,Charles Taylor, “What is Secularity?”, inKevin [Jon] Vanhoozer, Martin Warner, editors,Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology: Reason, Meaning and Experience(Transcending Boundaries in Philosophy and Theology), Aldershot, Hampshire; Burlington, Vt.:Ashgate Publishing,→ISBN, page69:Once myth and error are dissipated, these are theonly games in town. The empirical approach is the only valid way of acquiring knowledge, and this becomes evident as soon as we free ourselves from the thraldom of a false metaphysics.2012August 22, Andy Beckett, “Britannia Unchained: the rise of the new Tory right”, inThe Guardian‎[3]:[…]the underlying message for Britons is relentless: raw capitalism is theonly game in town, and you need to start working much harder.2013October 24, Adewale Maja-Pearce, “Nigeria's talking shop”, inThe New York Times‎[4], archived fromthe originalon29 October 2013:Political power, after all, is theonly game in townthat ensures unfettered access to the nation's oil riches.2022July 25,Lord Maude, quotee, “Truss and Sunak trade blows in acrimonious first TV debate”, inThe Guardian‎[5]:He said that the increasingly fractious tone of interventions from the campaign teams over the weekend had begun to appear like “a race over who can sound more rightwing, as if that’s theonly game in town”.

Examples:

EN: It's crooked, but it's the only game in town.
ES: Sabían que era sucio, pero era el único juego que había.
EN: - We're the only game in town.
ES: - Somos el único objetivo de Calvera.
EN: But I'm the only game in town.
ES: Pero soy la única jugada que hay.
EN: We have, as you Americans put it so aptly, the only game in town.
ES: Tenemos, como dicen ustedes los estadounidenses el único puesto de la feria.
EN: The table's dead, the cues are crooked, we're short on balls... but as they say back home, it's the only game in town.
ES: La mesa es lenta, los palos están torcidos y nos faltan bolas pero... como dicen en mi tierra, no tenemos otro juego.
EN: Now I'm the only game in town.
ES: Ahora soy el único de la ciudad.
EN: The Mahu factory. It's the only game in town.
ES: En la fábrica Mahu, es lo único que hay.
EN: It's the only game in town where you can't shoot with your own money.
ES: Es el único local de la ciudad donde tú puedes jugar.
EN: We're the only game in town.
ES: Somos el único juego en la ciudad.
EN: I'm the only game in town.
ES: Soy el único juego en la ciudad.
EN: The only game in town!
ES: ¡La única diversión de la ciudad!
EN: I'm the only game in town now?
ES: ¿Yo soy el unico jueguito de la ciudad?
EN: I mean, it's not like they're the only game in town, right?
ES: No es que sean los únicos en la ciudad.
EN: The only game in town.
ES: En el único jugador.
EN: He's not the only game in town.
ES: No es el único ciervo en el bosque.

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