Idiom Category: Food, Page 4

Separate the wheat from the chaff

When you separate the wheat from the chaff, you select what is useful or valuable and reject what is useless or worthless.

Settled on your lees

This is an old biblical idiom but still used. It refers to the lees (dregs, sediments) of wine or other liquids that settle in the bottom of the containing vessel if it is not disturbed. Hence, the idiom refers to someone or something that is at ease, not disturbed, or worried. Sometimes this also has reference to a false assurance.

Sharp cookie

Someone who isn't easily deceived or fooled is a sharp cookie.

She'll be apples

(AU) A very popular old Australian saying meaning everything will be all right, often used when there is some doubt.

Sing for your supper

If you have to sing for your supper, you have to work to get the pay or reward you need or want.

Slower than molasses going uphill in January

(USA) To move extremely slowly. Molasses drips slowly anyway but add January cold and gravity, dripping uphill would be an impossibility, thereby making the molasses move very slowly indeed!

Small potatoes

Someone or something that is unimportant is small potatoes.

Sour grapes

When someone says something critical or negative because they are jealous, it is a case of sour grapes.

Sow your wild oats

If a young man sows his wild oats, he has a period of his life when he does a lot of exciting things and has a lot of sexual relationships. for e.g. He'd spent his twenties sowing his wild oats but felt that it was time to settle down.

Spice of life

The spice of life is something that makes it feel worth living.

Spill the beans

If you spill the beans, you reveal a secret or confess to something.

Square meal

A square meal is a substantial or filling meal.

Squeeze blood out of a turnip

(USA) When people say that you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip, it means that you cannot get something from a person, especially money, that they don't have.

Stew in your own juices

If you leave someone to stew in their own juices, you leave them to worry about the consequences of what they have done wrong or badly.

Sure as eggs is eggs

These means absolutely certain, and we do say 'is' even though it is grammatically wrong.

Sweet as a gumdrop

This means that something or someone is very nice or pretty.

Take the biscuit

(UK) If something takes the biscuit, it is the absolute limit.

Take the cake

If something takes the cake, it is the best and takes the honours.

Tall drink of water

Someone who is very tall and slender is a tall drink of water. ('A tall glass of water' is also used.)

Teach your grandmother to suck eggs

When people say 'don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs', they mean that people shouldn't try to teach someone who has experience or is an expert in that area.

That is the way the cookie crumbles

"That's the way the cookie crumbles" means that things don't always turn out the way we want.

The apple does not fall far from the tree

Offspring grow up to be like their parents.

There's no such thing as a free lunch

This idiom means that you don't get things for free, so if something appears to be free, there's a catch and you'll have to pay in some way.

Thick as mince

(UK) If someone is as thick as mince, they are very stupid indeed.

Too many cooks spoil the broth

This means that where there are too many people trying to do something, they make a mess of it.

Tough cookie

A tough cookie is a person who will do everything necessary to achieve what they want.

Tough nut to crack

If something is a tough nut to crack, it is difficult to find the answer or solution. When used about a person, it means that it is difficult to get them to do or allow what you want. 'Hard nut to crack' is an alternative.

Two peas in a pod

If things or people are like two peas in a pod, they look very similar or are always together.

Upper crust

The upper crust are the upper classes and the establishment.

Upset the apple cart

If you upset the apple cart, you cause trouble and upset people.

Wake up and smell the coffee

When someone doesn't realise what is really happening or is not paying enough attention to events around them, you can tell them to wake up and smell the coffee.

Walk on eggshells

If you have to walk on eggshells when with someone, you have to be very careful because they get angry or offended very easily.('Walk on eggs' is also used.) 

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

This idiom is often used when someone says something irrelevant to the topic being discussed.

What's cooking?

When you ask what's cooking it means you want to know what's happening.

White-bread

If something is white-bread, it is very ordinary, safe and boring.

Who has eaten of the pot knows the taste of the broth

Experience is the best teacher.

Worth your salt

Someone who is worth their salt deserves respect.

Wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding

If something isn't powerful: This bus wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

You are what you eat

This is used to emphasise the importance of a good diet as a key to good health.

You can't have cake and the topping, too

(USA) This idiom means that you can't have everything the way you want it, especially if your desires are contradictory.

You can't have your cake and eat it

This idiom means that you can't have things both ways. For example, you can't have very low taxes and a high standard of state care.

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs

This idiom means that in order to achieve something or make progress, there are often losers in the process.

You're toast

If someone tells you that you are toast, you are in a lot of trouble.

Suggest an Idiom