0
Let them eat cake
5 years agoWith the festive season upon us I find myself drawn to the kitchen. There are few things I enjoy more than baking a cake. My latest creation got me thinking of how cakes have been used in idioms throughout the history of the English language.
1. A piece of cake
Meaning: To be easy.
Example: I can do the job, it should be a piece of cake.
2. A share/slice of the cake
Meaning: A portion of the money or profits that are shared by everyone involved in their generation.
Example: Winning the project was a team effort and all the team members should get a slice of the cake.
3. Cakewalk
Meaning: To be easy or effortless to achieve.
Example: This competition should be a cakewalk. We’re bound to win the prize.
4. To go/sell like hot cakes
Meaning: Easy to sell.
Example: Our recently launched products are selling like hot cakes.
5. To have your/one’s cake and eat it
Meaning: More easily understood as “You can't have your cake and eat it too” i.e. Used for expressing the impossibility of having something both ways, if those two ways conflict.
Example: The act of divorce after having an extramarital affair is an indication that you cant have your cake and eat it too.
6. Nutty as a fruitcake
Meaning: Insane or completely mad.
Example: My senile grandmother is as nutty as a fruitcake.
7. That takes the cake/biscuit!
Meaning: An outrageous example of something bad. Alternatively: That is too much; That does it!
Example: Stealing your own child's Halloween candy really takes the cake!
8. The cherry/icing on the cake
Meaning: Something that makes a good situation even better i.e. An attractive but inessential addition or enhancement.
Example: I was delighted to be promoted but to get a company MacBook is the icing on the cake.
What food-related idioms or sayings do you have in your country?
