Idiom Category: Food, Page 3

Like giving a donkey strawberries

(UK) If something is like giving a donkey strawberries, people fail to appreciate its value.

Like green corn through the new maid

(USA) If something is very fast, it is like green corn through the new maid.

Like nailing jello to the wall

(USA) Describes a task that is very difficult because the parameters keep changing or because someone is being evasive.

Like peas in a pod

If people or things are like peas in a pod, they look identical.

Like taking candy from a baby

(USA) If something is like taking candy from a baby, it is very easy to do.

Like two peas in a pod

Things that are like two peas in a pod are very similar or identical,

Like watching sausage getting made

If something is like watching sausages getting made, unpleasant truths about it emerge that make it much less appealing.  The idea is that if people watched sausages getting made, they would probably be less fond of them.

Lose your lunch

(UK) If you lose your lunch, you vomit.

Low-hanging fruit

Low-hanging fruit are things that are easily achieved.

Make a meal

If someone makes a meal of something, they spend too long doing it or make it look more difficult than it really is.

Meat and drink

If something is meat and drink to you, you enjoy it and are naturally good at it, though many find it difficult.

Meat and potatoes

The meat and potatoes is the most important part of something. A meat and potatoes person is someone who prefers plain things to fancy ones.

Milk run

A milk run is a short trip, stopping in a number of places.

Mutton dressed as lamb

Mutton dressed as lamb is term for middle-aged or elderly people trying to look younger.

Nest egg

If you have some money saved for the future, it is a nest egg.

Nice as pie

If a person is nice as pie, they are surprisingly very kind and friendly. "After our argument, she was nice as pie!"

Not give a fig

If you don't give a fig about something, you don't care about it at all, especially used to express how little one cares about another's opinions or actions.

Not know beans about

(USA) If someone doesn't know beans about something, they know nothing about it.

Not my cup of tea

If something is not your cup of tea, you don't like it very much.

Nutty as a fruitcake

Someone who's nutty as a fruitcake is irrational or crazy. (This can be shortened to 'a fruitcake'.)

One bad apple

The full form of this proverb is 'one bad apple spoils the barrel', meaning that a bad person, policy, etc, can ruin everything around it.

One man's meat is another man's poison

This idiom means that one person can like something very much, but another can hate it.

Out to lunch

If someone's out to lunch, they are crazy or out of touch.

Over-egg the pudding

(UK) If you over-egg the pudding, you spoil something by trying to improve it excessively. It is also used nowadays with the meaning of making something look bigger or more important than it really is. ('Over-egg' alone is often used in this sense.)

Packed like sardines

If a place is extremely crowded, people are packed like sardines, or packed in like sardines.

Pay peanuts

If some is paid peanuts, their salary is very low.

Pea soup

Pea soup or pea souper can be used to describe dense fog.

Peanut gallery

An audience that interrupts, boos or heckles a performer, speaker, etc, is a peanut gallery.

Pie in the sky

If an idea or scheme is pie in the sky, it is utterly impractical.

Piece of cake

If something is a piece of cake, it is really easy.

Pieces of the same cake

Pieces of the same cake are things that have the same characteristics or qualities.

Pinch of salt

If what someone says should be taken with a pinch of salt, then they exaggerate and distort things, so what they say shouldn't be believed unquestioningly. ('with a grain of salt' is an alternative.)

Polish the apples

(USA) Someone who polishes the apples with someone, tries to get into that person's favor.

Polishing peanuts

To work very hard at something for little or no return. In other words, wasting time on work which will not yield reasonable value.

Proof of the pudding is in the eating

This means that something can only be judged when it is tested or by its results. (It is often shortened to 'Proof of the pudding'.)

Pull the fat from the fire

If you pull the fat from the fire, you help someone in a difficult situation.

Put all your eggs in one basket

If you put all your eggs in one basket, you risk everything on a single opportunity which, like eggs breaking, could go wrong.

Put some mustard on it!

(USA) It's used to encourage someone to throw a ball like a baseball hard or fast.

Quarrel with bread and butter

Bread and butter, here, indicate the means of one’s living. (That is why we say ‘he is the bread winner of the family’). If a sub-ordinate in an organisation is quarrelsome or if he is not patient enough to bear the reprimand he deserves, gets angry and retorts or provokes the higher-up, the top man dismisses him from the job. So, he loses the job that gave him bread and butter. Hence we say, he quarrelled with bread and butter (manager or the top man) and lost his job.

Real plum

A real plum is a good opportunity.

Recipe for disaster

A recipe for disaster is a mixture of people and events that could only possibly result in trouble.

Rest is gravy

(USA) If the rest is gravy, it is easy and straightforward once you have reached that stage.

Rice missionary

A rice missionary gives food to hungry people as a way of converting them to Christianity.

Salad days

Your salad days are an especially happy period of your life.

Salt in a wound

If you rub salt in a wound, you make someone feel bad about something that is already a painful experience. 'Pour salt on a wound' is an alternative form of the idiom.

Salt of the earth

People who are salt of the earth are decent, dependable and unpretentious.

Save someone's bacon

If something saves your bacon, it saves your life or rescues you from a desperate situation. People can also save your bacon.

Sell like hot cakes

If a product is selling very well, it is selling like hot cakes.

Sell like hotcakes

If something is selling like hotcakes, it is very popular and selling very well.

Sell your birthright for a mess of pottage

If a person sells their birthright for a mess of pottage, they accept some trivial financial or other gain, but lose something much more important. 'Sell your soul for a mess of pottage' is an alternative form.

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