More Food for Thought... M - Z
We’ve already noticed a few that are missing – Have you? Email us to let us know and we’ll be happy to add them to the list.
And in the mean time let’s get out there and spice it up because it’s use ‘em or lose ‘em in the tough world of contemporary idiom…
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 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.
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.
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 is out to lunch, they are not very aware of things around them.
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.
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.
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) Used to encourage someone to throw a ball like a baseball hard or fast.
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.
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.
Sell like hot cakes
If a product is selling very well, it is selling like hot cakes.
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.
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.
Sharp cookie
Someone who isn’t easily deceived or fooled is a sharp cookie.
Sour grapes
When someone says something critical or negative because they are jealous, it is a case of sour grapes.
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.
Sure as eggs is eggs
This means absolutely certain, and we do say ‘is’ even though it is grammatically wrong.
Take the biscuit
(UK) If something takes the biscuit, it is the absolute limit.
That’s the way the cookie crumbles
Means that things don’t always turn out the way we want.
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.
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.
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.
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.
White-bread
If something is white-bread, it is very ordinary, safe and boring.
Worth your salt
Someone who is worth their salt deserves respect.
You can’t have your cake and have the icing 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.
For A – L go to Food for Thought
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