at all costs (或 at any cost)

regardless of the price to be paid or the effort needed

不惜任何代价

he was anxious to avoid war at all costs.

他愿不惜一切代价来避免战争。

at cost

at cost price; without profit to the seller

按成本；以成本价

cost an arm and a leg

cost someone dear (或 dearly)

involve someone in a serious loss or a heavy penalty

使遭受严重损失；使受严惩

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

这是我犯的严重错误，使我们遭受了极大损失。

to someone's cost

with loss or disadvantage to someone

付出代价；吃苦头

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

没有节目可以播放，再好的机器也是无用的——这是一些硬件制造商的经验教训。