You would say "give us a centimetre, and we'll take a 1 kilometre."

The Metric System works far better, and is much simplier. everything is in losts of 10s, whilst you have your 1000 thou(Proper English)("mil" in your bastardised" Americanised "English") to theInch, 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 220 yards to the furlong, 8 furlongs to the mile, 3 miles to the league.
All in lots of tens, simple, easy, and obviously better since every other country, except the USA and 2 other, have adopted since they've realised the benifits of having it.