Bread and other flour-based food products have inspired a large number of idioms. Here is a comprehensive list food idioms.<\/p>\n
Your bread and butter is your livelihood. It is your food or the source of your income.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He works 12 hours a day to earn his bread and butter.
\n\u2022 Singing at pubs is her bread and butter.
\n\u2022 I can\u2019t quit this job. It is my bread and butter.<\/p>\n
This idiom is used to refer to the most minimal meal possible. Nowadays prisoners in most countries are served good food, but there was a time when they had to subsist on bare minimum of food and drink.<\/p>\n
\u2022 He has been on bread and water for several years. (= He has been in prison for several years. OR He has been subsisting on minimal food for several years.)
\n\u2022 The food that we were served in hostel was worse than bread and water.<\/p>\n
When you describe something as the best thing since sliced bread, what you mean is that it is very good, revolutionary or indispensable. This expression involves some exaggeration.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If you look at the way smartphones are marketed, you will arrive at the conclusion that they are the best thing since sliced bread.
\n\u2022 He is obsessed with her. He seems to think that she is the best \/ greatest thing since sliced bread.<\/p>\n
This idiom means that something is definitely better than nothing.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I didn\u2019t get everything that I wanted, but I decided to accept the offer. After all, half a loaf is better than no bread.<\/p>\n
When something is described as half-baked, it is incomplete or not thoroughly planned.<\/p>\n
\u2022 It was a half-baked scheme. Needless to say, it failed.<\/p>\n
When something sells like hotcakes, it sells really well.<\/p>\n
\u2022 His books are selling like hot cakes.<\/p>\n
To separate the wheat from the chaff is to distinguish the good ones from the bad ones.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Quite a few anti-virus software programs are now available. Actually, it is not easy to separate the wheat from the chaff.
\n\u2022 Now that plenty of dirt-cheap laptops and tablet computers are available in the market, customers are finding it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.<\/p>\n
If something is as flat as a pancake, it is very flat.<\/p>\n
\u2022 My nose is as flat as a pancake.<\/p>\n
When something is as warm as toast, it is very warm and comforting<\/p>\n
\u2022 It was a very cold night but the blanket kept us as warm as toast.<\/p>\n
This idiom is used to refer to an unrealistic expectation.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mary wants to be with her baby all the time, but she doesn\u2019t want to quit her job. She doesn\u2019t understand that she can\u2019t have her cake and eat it, too.
\n\u2022 Stay away from those burgers and pizzas if you want to lose weight. You can\u2019t have your cake and eat it, too.<\/p>\n
If something is as easy as apple pie, it is very easy to understood or solve.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The riddle was as easy as apple pie. I solved it in a matter of seconds.<\/p>\n
To have your finger in the pie is to be involved in something.<\/p>\n
\u2022 As it is a prestigious project, everybody wants to have their finger in the pie.
\n\u2022 Susie wants to have her finger in the pie.<\/p>\n
To have your finger in too many pies is to be involved in too many things. The problem is that when you are involved in too many things, you will not be able to do anything properly.<\/p>\n
\u2022 John has his finger in too many pies.
\n\u2022 She always starts new projects but doesn\u2019t finish anything because she has her finger in too many pies.<\/p>\n
Something that makes something else even better; an additional benefit<\/p>\n
\u2022 I was happy that I got a chance to participate in the contest. Winning the first prize was the icing on the cake.
\n\u2022 Weekends were always fun. The icing on the cake was getting an opportunity to go to the theatre.<\/p>\n
A pie in the sky is an unrealistic dream.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Her dreams of becoming a well-known singer were just pie in the sky.
\n\u2022 It didn\u2019t take him long to realize that his hopes of finding a good job were pie in the sky.<\/p>\n
If something is a piece of cake, it is very easy.<\/p>\n
\u2022 The test was a piece of cake.<\/p>\n
To sugarcoat something is to make it superficially attractive or acceptable.<\/p>\n
\u2022 His sugarcoated words didn\u2019t offer me any consolation.<\/p>\n
When something takes the cake, it is the most extreme example. This expression is mainly used to talk about bad things.<\/p>\n
\u2022 There have always been rumours about her affairs, but this one takes the cake. (= This latest rumour is the worst of them all.)
\n\u2022 I have seen many criminals but you take the cake. (= You are the worst criminal I have seen.)<\/p>\n
This idiom is used to mean that bad things can sometimes happen and there is nothing that you can do to prevent it. The idiom That\u2019s the way the ball bounces also mean the same.<\/p>\n
\u2022 I couldn\u2019t believe that I had failed the test. I worked really hard and was quite confident of passing. Ah well, that\u2019s the way the cookie crumbles.
\n\u2022 I was a better candidate that John. Still they chose him for the job, not me. Well, I guess that\u2019s the way the cookie crumbles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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