Idioms are words, phrases, and expressions that are peculiar to a language. The meanings of these words, phrases, and expressions cannot be taken literal but rather must be understood figuratively. Many idioms in the English language mention food. The following sections provide definitions of some common English idioms and proverbs that include meats, dairy, and other foods.
Meat Idioms
The following English idioms figuratively use meat to describe someone or something negative, although a few are positive idioms.
- to bring home the bacon – to succeed in an undertaking; to achieve success; to earn a living for a family
- to save one's bacon – to escape injury to one's body, to keep oneself from harm
- to eat crow – to admit one is mistaken or defeated, to take back a mistaken statement; to be forced to do something extremely disagreeable and humiliating
- bad egg – someone who cannot be trusted; a bad person; a person or a scheme that disappoints expectation
- to break the egg in somebody's pocket – to spoil somebody's plan
- to egg on – to incite, encourage, urge on; to provoke, tempt
- to have all your eggs in one basket – to risk all one's property on a single venture; to depend on one plan
- to have egg on one's face – to be made to look foolish; to be embarrassed or humiliated by the turn of events
- to tread on eggs – to walk warily, as on delicate ground
- ham – an inexpert performed; a show-off
Dairy Idioms
The figurative use of dairy products like cheese and milk often result in humorous sayings as in these English idioms.
- to believe that the moon is made of green cheese – to be gullible; to be easily persuaded
- big cheese – a person who has a lot of power and influence in an organization; an important or self-important person
- cheesed off – annoyed or irritated
- to cut the cheese – to pass gas, to fart
- It's no use crying over spilt milk. – it is futile to regret what cannot be altered or undone
- milk and honey – prosperity and abundance; richness of produce; plenty, comfort
- milk for babes – nourishment appropriate only to the earliest stages of development
- the milk in the coconut – a puzzling fact or circumstance; a crux
- milk of human kindness – care and compassion for others; humanity
- to milk – to deprive or defraud by taking regular amounts over a period of time; to exploit
- to milk dry – to drain completely of resources; to exploit exhaustively
- to milk the bull – to engage in an enterprise doomed to failure
Other Food Idioms
The following English idioms use other foods figuratively to describe both good and bad things.
- cream of the crop – the best of a group, the top choice
- gravy train – a job or work that pays more than it is worth
- to rub salt in one's wounds – to behave or speak to someone so as to aggravate a hurt already inflicted
- salt of the earth – a person or persons of great worthiness, reliability, honesty
- to take something with a grain of salt – to accept a statement with a certain amount of reserve; to doubt the accuracy of some information
- to be worth one's salt – to be efficient or capable; often as 'not to be worth one's salt'
- to make one's mouth water – to be delicious or appetizing
- someone's cup of tea – something that someone enjoys or does well
An idioms is a word, phrase, or expression whose meanings is figurative instead of literal. These English idioms that mention meats, dairy products, and other foods are popular and common phrases in the English language.
Sources
English Idioms Relating to Food
Oxford English Dictionary
Heather Marie Kosur - About Me I earned a BA in English studies with a minor in creative writing from Illinois State University in May 2007 and an MS in ...
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