APAD: Go out on a limb

Meaning:

    Put oneself in an risky position in one's support of someone or something.

 

Background:

    The limb being talked about here is the branch of a tree and `out on a limb'

    is an allusion to climbing trees and going just a bit further than is

    comfortable.

 

    All of us must remember that feeling of not wanting to go further out to

    reach that apple/ball or whatever for fear that the branch (limb) would

    break under us.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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My friend Bill did a ringer job and sat in the national college English Level 4

exam for a buddy. According to school policy, the guy couldn't get his

bachelor's diploma without passing. He had failed twice already, it was his

fourth year and last shot, and he had no doubt he would fail again. The exam

itself was a piece of cake for Bill but if he were caught both would be

expelled. It took some planning and daring but they pulled it off.

 

This was in the mid-90s, the height of Reform and Opening. Everything was

looking up and the future rosy. Bill went out on a limb for his friend partly

because he betted that would he fail he could still get work in the hot market

for educated labor.