Food is such an important part of life and culture, so all languages have idioms related to food in some way. These useful English idioms and sayings are all based on food and are part of the rich diversity of our language. Click on the individual idioms for a more complete explanation, more examples, and idiom origin.
Contents
- An Army Marches on Its Stomach
- Bad Egg
- Baker’s Dozen
- Apple of My Eye
- Apple-Pie Order
- Banana Republic
- Comparing Apples and Oranges
- Bear Fruit
- Cool as a Cucumber
- Low-Hanging Fruit
- Beef Up
- Bite Off More Than You Can Choose
- Bigger Fish to Fry, have
- Bring Home the Bacon
- Cakewalk
- Flat as a Pancake
- Icing on the Cake
- Piece of Cake
- Sell Like Hot Cakes
- Take the Cake
- Can of Corn
- Caught with Your Hand in the Cookie Jar
- Couch Potato
- Cut the Mustard
- Daily Bread (one’s)
- Don’t Cry Over Spilt Milk
- Easy as Pie
- Eat a Horse, I Could
- Eat and Run
- Eat Like a Bird
- Eat Like a Horse
- Egg On Your Face
- Feast or Famine
- Food for Thought
- Good Egg
- Goose Egg
- Go Suck an Egg
- Gravy Train
- Have a Sweet Tooth
- Hot Potato
- In a Pickle
- Like Taking Candy From a Baby
- Not For All the Tea in China
- Not My Cup of Tea
- Proof is in the Pudding, the
- Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, don’t
- Rub Salt in the Wound
- Salt of the Earth
- Save Someone’s Bacon
- Simmer Down
- Slow as Molasses
- Stick to Your Ribs
- Sugarcoat
- Take With a Grain of Salt
- That’s the Way the Cooke Crumbles
- Thick as Pea Soup
- Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth
- Tough Nut to Crack
- Two Peas in a Pod, like
An Army Marches on Its Stomach
Meaning: Soldiers, workers, or anyone else expected to perform a task cannot function effectively unless they are well fed.
Example: “Cutting the worker’s lunch time is not going to increase production. An army marches on its stomach!”
Meaning: a person who, although they seem to be good, turns out to be a very bad person; one who cannot be trusted. Bad egg is the opposite of good egg.
Example: “It’s disappointing when someone you think is a good friend turns out to be a bad egg.”
Meaning: thirteen of anything, especially bread or pastry items.
Example: “We have a baker’s dozen of new watch designs to choose from.”
Food Idioms — Fruits, Apples, Oranges, Bananas
Meaning: a precious, cherished, and beloved person or thing; someone or something that is treasured and adored.
Example: “My grandchild is the apple of my eye.”
Meaning: neat, tidy, and well organized.
Example: “My mother always keeps her house in apple-pie order. She can’t stand things being out of place or messy.”
Meaning: a small, poor country, especially a small tropical state in central America, that is completely dependent on one fruit export or other limited product and ruled by a corrupt government, or whose economy is controlled by corrupt foreign interests.
Examples: “If they have their way this country will become a banana republic.”
Meaning: two things are completely different and it makes no sense to compare them.
Example: “You’re considering a BMW and a Honda? That’s apples to oranges.”
Meaning: to produce results; to have a satisfactory outcome or favorable outcome.
“He’s had a lot of ideas, but this is the first one to bear fruit.”
Meaning: to be cool as a cucumber means to be very calm; in control of your emotions; to have great self-control; to be self-possessed.
Example: “Bruce is the guy you want around during a crisis. He’s as cool as a cucumber.”
Meaning: the easiest and quickest thing to achieve or obtain; easy to take advantage of; the easiest person(s) to sell something to, to convince of something, or to fool or take advantage of.
Example: “The teen market is sort of low-hanging fruit for us, especially given the rise of influencer marketing.”
Meaning: to increase something, especially to add strength to it; to reinforce something; to add more to something to make it more substantial; to make something more effective; to become big and muscular or, sometimes, to become fat.
Example: “Given the potential for violence, we will have to substantially beef up security for this event.”
Bite Off More Than You Can Chew
Meaning: to take on more responsibility than you can handle; to try to do a job that is too big for you.
Example: “Nathan was already working two jobs. Now he’s taken a third. He’s definitely bitten off more than he can chew.”
Meaning: To have bigger fish to fry means to have more important things to do; to have more important or pressing matters to attend to.
Example: “The prosecutor declined to pursue the case saying he ‘had bigger fish to fry.”
Meaning: 1. To bring home the bacon means to earn money to feed and shelter one’s family; to be a breadwinner; to earn a living; to provide the necessities of daily living. 2. To complete a job or task successfully or to accomplish something of value; to win the prize.
Example: “I know you don’t like it when I work such long hours but someone has to bring home the bacon.”
Food Idioms About CAKE
Meaning: something that is easy. Often refers to an easy victory. Cakewalk is a synonym for piece of cake.
Example: “Wow, that game was a cakewalk, we really beat the pants off ’em.”
Meaning: extremely level or flat, as in a landscape; entirely squashed for flattened; rude way to describe a woman with small breasts (also, flat as a board).
Example: “Both my front tires are as flat as a pancake. I don’t know what happened.”
Meaning: something good that is added to an already good thing so that it is even better; an additional benefit; something that makes a good thing great.
Example: “This is my dream job. The health benefits and the paid holidays are just the icing on the cake.”
Meaning: something that it is very easy to accomplish.
Example: “Are you sure you can fix my car?” asked Joyce. “Piece of cake,” said Derick.
Meaning: to sell quickly and in large quantities; to be quite commercially successful.
Example: “Trust me. There will come a day when electric cars are selling like hot cakes.”
Meaning: When something takes the cake it is a remarkable example of something negative or positive. It may describe something that is very surprising, annoying, foolish, etc. To take the cake basically means to be the most outstanding example in some way.
Example: “We’ve had a lot of bad workers here but he really takes the cake.”
Meaning: 1. In Baseball, a can of corn is a high, easy-to-catch flyball or popup. 2. Something very easy to accomplish; an easy task.
Example: “That was no problem at all. A can of corn.”
Caught with Your Hand In The Cookie Jar (also: have one’s hand in the cookie jar)
Meaning: to be caught in the act of doing something wrong or forbidden, especially stealing money from one’s employer.
Example: “I had to get rid of my assistant manager,” said Mr. Roberts, “he had his hand in the cookie jar.”
Meaning: a physically inactive person who spends much of their time sitting and watching television and eating junk food. A couch potato does not exercise or engage in regular physical activity.
Example: “You’ve turned into a real couch potato,” said Ella. “Remember when we used to go hiking every weekend?”
Meaning: to perform satisfactorily; to meet expectations; to meet the required standard; to do well enough to succeed (at a job, task, etc.)
Example: “I wanted to be a professional baseball player, but I just didn’t cut the mustard at the college level.”
Meaning: one’s daily food or basic essentials of living. It can also mean the money needed to pay ordinary daily expenses. Often, references are made to ‘earning your daily bread,’ which is equivalent to earning one’s living.
Example: “She couldn’t even earn her daily bread, let alone have any luxuries.”
Meaning: don’t be upset about something that has happened and cannot be changed, undone, or rectified.
Example: “I’m sorry you didn’t make the team but there’s no use crying over spilt milk. Just practice hard and try again next year.”
Meaning: When something is easy as pie, it is very easy to do, presenting no difficulty. See similar idiom Piece of Cake
Example: “That math test today was easy as pie.”
Meaning: I could eat a horse means “I am extremely hungry.”
Example: “Do you want to go out for dinner?” said Colleen. “Yes,” said Martin, “I’m starving. I could eat a horse.”
Meaning: to eat a meal or a snack quickly and then immediately leave.
Example: “I hate to eat and run but I have to be at the airport by eight o’clock.”
Meaning: to eat very little or to eat very small portions only big enough for a bird; to have a very small appetite.
Example: “No wonder Jane is so thin. She eats like a bird.”
Meaning: to eat a large amount of food or to have a very large appetite.
Example: “If Ben is coming to visit you better buy extra food. He eats like a horse.”
Meaning: to be publicly embarrassed; to appear foolish or ridiculous.
Example: “He had egg on his face after claiming he could bench press 300 pounds.”
Meaning: either too much or too little of something, too many or too few. It describes extremes of wealth or poverty; great availability or complete lack.
Example: “Being a roofer is difficult. During the summer there is too little work and during the winter too much. It’s always feast or famine.”
Meaning: something, such as an idea, that is worth thinking about or considering; something that is worthy of serious consideration or careful pondering so that you understand it fully.
Example: “Instead of throwing away this old wood, why don’t we use it to make something? Food for thought, anyway.”
Meaning: a good, nice, and trustworthy person.
Example: “That Peter is a good egg. He’s always helping out.”
Meaning: A score of zero in a sports game or competition; a raised lump on the head resulting from a blow or impact to the head; a failure; a defeat; zero success.
Example: “We played hard but ended up with a big fat goose egg. Not one goal!”
Meaning: an angry and rude way to tell someone to go away, similar to take a hike, piss off, go jump off a log, get lost, etc.; an indignant response to a comment, similar to go to hell.
Example: “You look like something the cat dragged in.” “Oh, go suck an egg!”
Meaning: a source of easy financial profit, or a position in which you have a very good chance of obtaining advantages.
Example: “He’s been on the gravy train so long he doesn’t remember what it’s like to struggle.
Meaning: to very much enjoy eating sugary foods; to have a marked craving or desire for sweet foods like candy and pastries.
Example: “Wow, you have quite the sweet tooth. That’s your third bowl of ice cream, today.”
Meaning: a problem, situation, or subject that is controversial, divisive, sensitive, awkward, risky, embarrassing, difficult, or unpleasant to deal with; something that causes a lot of disagreement.
Example: “The biggest political hot potatoes right now are border control and abortion rights.”
Meaning: to be in a difficult or embarrassing situation; in a dilemma or quandary.
Example: “Our flight is canceled and the next one is not until tomorrow. Meanwhile, we don’t have a place to stay. We are in a pickle, for sure.”
Meaning: extremely easy to do; too easy to do; nearly impossible to fail at (of something sneaky, dishonest, unfair).
Example: “I can always get my uncle to lend me money. It’s like taking candy from a baby.”
Meaning: not for any price or reward; never; not at all.
Example: “I wouldn’t date her again for all the tea in China. She’s crazy!”
Meaning: not something you like or prefer; not something one would choose.
Example: “Do you want to go to see that Dwayne Johnson movie?” “Action movies are not my cup of tea but I’ll go with you if you want some company,” said Aaron.
Meaning: the real results of something can only be judged by actual experience or results rather than theory or appearance.
Example: “Sure it was a risky investment but look at how it had paid off. The proof is in the pudding.”
Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, don’t
Meaning: to risk losing everything by having only one plan or idea and depend entirely on it for your success.
Example: “I applied to ten different colleges. I didn’t want to put all my eggs in one basket.”
Meaning: to make a bad or painful situation worse, such as by pointing out a person’s mistakes or shortcomings, teasing, or reminding them of how bad a situation is. When someone rubs salt into your wound, they make you feel worse than you did before., often deliberately.
Example: “It was bad enough getting fired, you don’t have to rub salt in the wound by telling me how bad I screwed up.”
Meaning: to be a very good, honest, worthy, and reliable person or persons.
Example: “He’s truly the salt of the earth — he’d give you the shirt off his back.”
Meaning: to rescue someone from a difficult or dangerous situation; to cause someone to escape from being harmed; to save someone from disaster or danger.
Example: “Thanks for covering for me at work. You saved my bacon for sure.”
Meaning: to become calm after being upset, angry, agitated, or excited; to regain one’s composure; to stop acting in an overly excited, rambunctious, or aggressive way; (in regards to a situation) to become less busy or out chaotic.
Example: “You kids need to simmer down. I’m trying to read and you are literally bouncing off the walls.”
Meaning: extremely slow; sluggish; not very fast at all.
Example: “I had to switch to a new browser. The old one was as slow as molasses.”
Meaning: referring to food, to be filling or substantial or to food that keeps you from being hungry again quickly; to be sustaining.
Example: “You look half-starved. Have some of this stew. It’ll stick to your ribs.”
Meaning: to explain or present something in a way that makes it seem more positive or pleasant than it really is; to attempt to make a subject more acceptable or less fraught or complicated by presenting it in a pleasant and inaccurate way…
Example: “The leader was accused of sugarcoating the extent of damage caused by the nuclear accident.”
Meaning: to be skeptical about something; to not consider something to be completely true or correct; to have reservations about something.
Example: “I take his wild stories with a grain of salt. He likes to be the center of attention.”
That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles
Meaning: that’s the way things often turn out; that’s the way things are (and nothing can be done about it).
Example: “I hear the factory is closing despite what the boss claimed,” said Frank. “That’s how the cookie crumbles,” replied Chuck.
Meaning: When fog or the humidity of the air is as thick as pea soup, it is very thick and heavy. In regards to fog, you can’t see through it very well when it is as thick as pea soup. When the air itself is as thick as pea soup, them means that if feels heavy and oppressive due to the amount of humidity.
Example: “The fog was as thick as pea soup so I didn’t see the other car until it was right in front of me.”
Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth
Meaning: too many people trying to do the same work or activity at the same time will either hinder progress or ruin the final result.
Example: “Someone needs to be in charge of the party because we can’t all be in charge. Too many cooks spoil the broth.”
Meaning: a difficult problem; something that is challenging to solve; a place, group, situation, etc. to which it is difficult to gain entry or acceptance; a person, group, or organization that is difficult to influence; a person who is difficult to deal with or hard to get to know or understand.
Example: “This air-conditioning malfunction is a tough nut to crack. I can’t seem to find the problem.”
Meaning: When two people are like two peas in a pod they are very similar to one another and have a close resemblance.
Example: “Jane and Mary are like two peas in a pod.”
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