take for granted

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take for granted (third-person singular simple present takes for granted, present participle taking for granted, simple past took for granted, past participle taken for granted)

1. (transitive, of a thing) To assume something to be true without verification or proof.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 17, in Oliver Twist:

     Let it be considered a delicate intimation on the part of the historian that he is going back to the town in which Oliver Twist was born; the reader taking it for granted that there are good and substantial reasons for making the journey.

2. (transitive, idiomatic, especially of a person) To give little attention to or to underestimate the value of; to fail to appreciate, especially something one has grown heavily accustomed to; not to value or care for appropriately, out of the assumption that the person or thing not valued cannot be lost.
   • 1825, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character on the Several Grounds of Prudence, Morality, and Religion: […], London: […] Thomas Davison, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC:

     These great First Truths, these good and gracious Tidings, these holy and humanizing Spells, in the preconformity to which our very humanity may be said to consist, are so infused, that it were but a tame and inadequate expression to say, we all take them for granted.

   • 1946 November 25, “Posthumous Portrait”, in Time:

     He had fiercely championed loveless ladies entering frustrated middle age, the married woman whose husband took her for granted and seldom into his arms.

   • 1997, George Carlin, “FIRST THINGS FIRST”, in Brain Droppings‎^[1], New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 68:

     Many things we take for granted must have sounded unusual the first time they were proposed. For instance, imagine trying to explain to someone, for the first time, that you thought giving him an enema would be a real good idea. You'd have to proceed very subtly.

   • 2020 May 20, Andrew Haines tells Stefanie Foster, “Repurpose rail for the 2020s”, in Rail, page 35:

     He barely needs a moment to think: "For me, there are three things.
     "First of all, never, never, never take our passengers and freight users for granted. Because I think after this, lots more people will be thinking about their choices very differently, and there's always a danger in the railway that unintentionally we take people for granted - and particularly in Network Rail with regards to passengers. So don't ever take a passenger for granted.

• See also Thesaurus:suppose

• you never miss the water till the well runs dry