fair play to ya

What it means

1. 1.

   Well done; credit where it's due. Used for an effort that took nerve, decency or persistence rather than for talent.

In use

• Fair play to ya, you stuck at it.

• She ran the whole thing on her own. Fair play.

  Note: Standing alone it is warm and sincere; drawled slowly it can be sarcastic.

Where it comes from

From the sporting sense of fair play, generalised into a compliment. It covers roughly the ground of the Irish 'maith thú' ('good on you'), which many speakers also use, and 'fair dues' is the common variant.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

fair dues, fair play to you