Idioms using Food – 1

apple of her/his eye
MEANING: someone or something that one likes a lot
EXAMPLE: The little girl is the apple of her grandfather’s eye.

bad egg
MEANING: a bad person, bum
EXAMPLE: That man is a bad egg so you should try and avoid him if you can.

big cheese
MEANING: an important person, a leader
EXAMPLE: He is a big cheese in his company so you should be very nice to him.

bread and butter
MEANING: basic needs of life (food,shelter,clothing)
EXAMPLE: The voters are worried about bread and butter issues like jobs and taxes.

bring home the bacon
MEANING: earn your family’s living
EXAMPLE: Recently he has been working very hard trying to bring home the bacon. He has no time to do anything else.

butter up
MEANING: flatter someone to try to get their favor or friendship
EXAMPLE: He spends most of his free time trying to butter up his boss so that he won’t have to work so hard.

carrot and stick
MEANING: promising to reward or punish someone at the same time
EXAMPLE: The government took a carrot and stick approach to the people who were illegally protesting against the construction of the dam.

cool as a cucumber
MEANING: calm, not nervous or anxious
EXAMPLE: He is always as cool as a cucumber and never worries about anything.

couch potato
MEANING: a very lazy person
EXAMPLE: He is a real couch potato and just sits around watching TV and staying indoors all day.

cream of the crop
MEANING: best of a group, the top choice
EXAMPLE: The company is well-known as a good place to work and is always able to hire the cream of the crop of university graduates.

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Posted in Fast Speech