leave money on the table
v. phr.— «The difference between what the high bidder on a lease parcel offers and the bid of his nearest competitor is called in the industry “leaving money on the table.” Humble left the table well laden on several of its bids.» —“Record $603 Million Bid for Santa Barbara Oil Leases” by Thomas W. Bush Los Angeles Times Feb. 7, 1968. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
Aaron in Los Angeles, California, notes while using public transit in Britain he and other passengers were instructed to alight from the front, meaning “exit the car from the front.” Alight comes from an Old English word alihtan, literally, to...