30 Tasty Food Idioms in English
Idioms are phrases that have a figurative meaning different from the literal meaning of the words.
Food idioms relate to different foods, dishes, and eating.
Learning these idioms can add some flavor to your English and help you understand their colorful meanings.
Let’s take a look at 30 common food idioms used in English:
Apple of my eye
Meaning: Someone or something very cherished or beloved
Example: Her children are the apples of her eye.
Bring home the bacon
Meaning: To earn the money that allows a family to live
Example: With both parents working, they can bring home the bacon.
Spill the beans
Meaning: To share a secret unintentionally
Example: I spilled the beans about the surprise party.
Cherry on top
Meaning: Something desirable added to make a good situation even better
Example: Getting that bonus was the cherry on top after a successful year.
Go bananas
Meaning: To become extremely excited or angry
Example: She went bananas when she saw the new video game.
In a pickle
Meaning: In a difficult situation
Example: I’m really in a pickle trying to finish this essay on time.
Piece of cake
Meaning: A task that is easy to do
Example: The math test was a piece of cake for her.
Chopped liver
Meaning: Something perceived as being of little importance or value
Example: To his boss, his ideas were just chopped liver.
Cool as a cucumber
Meaning: Very calm and relaxed
Example: She was cool as a cucumber during the big presentation.
Egg on
Meaning: To encourage someone to do something, often bad
Example: His friends egged him on to pull the prank.
Butter someone up
Meaning: To compliment someone insincerely to get something
Example: He tried to butter up his boss for a raise.
Full of beans
Meaning: To be lively and energetic
Example: The kids were full of beans after napping all day.
Couch potato
Meaning: A lazy person who sits around a lot
Example: During summer, he becomes a total couch potato.
Cookie-cutter
Meaning: Exactly the same, without variation
Example: These houses all look so cookie-cutter.
Curiosity killed the cat
Meaning: Being inquisitive can lead to trouble
Example: Dad warned not to snoop, saying curiosity killed the cat.
Let’s peel the onion
Meaning: To investigate something thoroughly
Example: Let’s peel the onion and look at the analytics deeply.
Nuts about
Meaning: To be extremely enthusiastic or passionate about something
Example: She goes nuts about that boy band.
Lettuce turnip the beet
Meaning: Let’s leave now and go somewhere else
Example: It’s getting late, lettuce turnip the beet and go home.
Hot potato
Meaning: A controversial issue that is awkward to deal with
Example: Immigration reform is a political hot potato this year.
Use the salad tongs
Meaning: To approach a difficult task in a delicate manner
Example: We’ll need to use the salad tongs regarding her resignation.
Tough cookie
Meaning: A resilient person who is hard to influence
Example: My grandma is one tough cookie – nothing gets her down.
Take the biscuit
Meaning: To be the most objectionable or outrageous example
Example: His rudeness took the biscuit at the dinner party.
Cookie crumbles
Meaning: The way that things happen to turn out
Example: That’s just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.
Bun in the oven
Meaning: A woman is pregnant
Example: There’s a bun in the oven – I’m due in October!
Let’s plow ahead
Meaning: Let’s continue forward quickly
Example: Now that we’re prepared, let’s plow ahead with the project.
Egghead
Meaning: An intellectual person, bookworm
Example: All those computer eggheads are coding a new app.
Over a barrel
Meaning: To be in a helpless position with no options
Example: We were caught over a barrel when the airline lost our luggage.
That’s gravy
Meaning: An additional benefit or profit
Example: Getting paid for overtime was just gravy on top of my salary.
Salt of the earth
Meaning: A very good, decent and reliable person
Example: My neighbor is the salt of the earth – always willing to help.
Bake a bigger pie
Meaning: To get more resources rather than divide up the same amount
Example: Instead of cutting funding, let’s bake a bigger pie to support schools.
Bon appétit! Hopefully exploring these 30 tasty English food idioms gives you more ingredients to spice up your conversations.
While their meanings may be confusing at first, keeping this lesson handy will help you digest their figurative definitions like a piece of cake!
Read more:
- 100 English Collocations Sentences for Daily Use
- Collocations with “Strong” and “Weak” in English
- Collocations Expressing Feelings and Emotions
- Top 10 Collocations in English
- 100+ English Collocations to Sound More Fluent
- Everyday English Expressions for Daily Use
