at all costs (或 at any cost)

regardless of the price to be paid or the effort needed

不惜任何代價

he was anxious to avoid war at all costs.

他愿不惜一切代價來避免戰爭。

at cost

at cost price; without profit to the seller

按成本；以成本價

cost an arm and a leg

cost someone dear (或 dearly)

involve someone in a serious loss or a heavy penalty

使遭受嚴重損失；使受嚴懲

they were really bad mistakes on my part and they cost us dear.

這是我犯的嚴重錯誤，使我們遭受了極大損失。

to someone's cost

with loss or disadvantage to someone

付出代價；吃苦頭

without programmes to play on it, the cleverest machine is useless—as some hardware manufacturers already know to their cost.

沒有節目可以播放，再好的機器也是無用的——這是一些硬件制造商的經驗教訓。