Search Results for food | Strange Phrases

Food for thought

Meaning Something that merits serious reflection or gives the mind material to ponder. It appears almost exclusively as the object of 'give', 'offer', or 'provide', said of reports, remarks, statistics, and…

Also known as give someone food for thought · offer food for thought · plenty of food for thought · provide food for thought

Dogfooding

Meaning … Chiefly software-industry usage; occurs as the verb 'to dogfood' and in the fuller expression 'eating your own dog food'. Neutral-to-wry jargon rather than slang. Insider jargon with a mildly comic image…

Also known as dogfood (verb) · drinking your own champagne · eat your own dog food · eating your own dog food

Cannon fodder

Meaning Soldiers regarded by their commanders as expendable raw material to be consumed by the enemy's guns; by extension, anyone used thoughtlessly to further someone else's aims, especially in a struggle they did…

Also known as fodder for the guns · food for powder · gun fodder

Piping hot

Meaning Very hot, especially of freshly cooked food or drink served steaming. It is used almost exclusively of things that are meant to be hot, not of weather or tempers. Neutral, slightly warm or appetizing…

Also known as hot enough to pipe (archaic)

Girl dinner

Meaning … it trivialises eating too little. Playful and informal; can draw criticism when it appears to glorify very small meals. Regional use: General English; born on and strongest in TikTok and food social media…

Also known as girl breakfast · girl's dinner · medieval peasant dinner

Under your belt

Meaning … lies behind you and can be drawn on. Applied literally to food and drink swallowed, and far more often today to experience, qualifications, wins, or completed tasks that now count to your credit. Standard…

Also known as get something under your belt · have something under your belt · under one's belt

Bread and butter

Meaning … concerns, as in 'bread-and-butter issues'. The literal food-pairing sense is far older and still available. Neutral register; the attributive 'bread-and-butter issues' is a staple of political and business…

Also known as bread-and-butter issues · bread-and-butter money · quarrel with your bread and butter · someone's bread and butter

Tighten your belt

Meaning … governments alike. The image behind it is physical: pulling a belt in a notch when there is less food. Informal and slightly stoic; implies necessary, even virtuous austerity. Regional use: General English…

Also known as belt-tightening · pull in one's belt · tighten one's belt · tighten our belts

Kill the fatted calf

Meaning … prepare a lavish celebration, especially serving the best food and drink, in order to welcome someone home after a long absence. Very often used ironically of a warmer reception than the returning person…

Also known as kill the fatted calf for someone · kill the fattened calf · slaughter the fatted calf · the fatted calf

A dish fit for the gods

Meaning Food - or by extension anything - of superb, luxurious quality, so fine it would be worthy of the gods. Mostly a playful, elevated compliment about a meal or a spread, sometimes broadened to any exemplary…

Also known as a feast fit for the gods · a meal fit for the gods · fit for the gods

Kill them with kindness

Meaning … or indulgence - plying a rival or guest with so much food, praise, attention, or accommodation that they capitulate or suffer, all without a single unkind word being spoken. Usually playful or ironic rather…

Also known as kill someone with kindness · kill with kindness · killing them with kindness

Live from hand to mouth

Meaning To live with only enough money or food for immediate needs, so that whatever comes in is spent or eaten at once and nothing can be saved for emergencies; the adjective form describes a hand-to-mouth…

Also known as a hand-to-mouth existence · from hand to mouth · live hand to mouth · living from hand to mouth

Nosh

Meaning … itself; in British English the noun has broadened to mean food in general ('grab some nosh'). The register is casual in both American and British use, and the word carries no stronger flavor than 'snack'…

Also known as nosh-up · nosher · noshing

Galore

Meaning … following the noun it modifies ('opportunities galore', 'food galore'), which makes it one of the few adjectives English forces into that position. The tone is cheerful and a little quaint rather than formal…

Also known as gallore · galor

Sweet tooth

Meaning A strong liking or weakness for sugary foods and drinks. Someone with a sweet tooth craves sweets, chocolate, and desserts, and the phrase can also stretch loosely to any strong preference, as in a sweet…

Also known as a sweet tooth for something · have a sweet tooth · sweet-toothed

First rate

Meaning … It serves as an adjective ('a first-rate mechanic', 'the food was first rate') and, more datedly, as a cheerful standalone reply meaning very well ('How are you? First rate!'). The adjectival use is standard…

Also known as feeling first rate · in first-rate condition · second rate

Gargantuan

Meaning … giant, while applying to anything vast rather than only food-related things. Often humorous hyperbole; somewhat more elevated and comic than plain 'enormous'. Regional use: General English (from Rabelais'…

Also known as Gargantua (the giant's name) · gargantuanly · Pantagruelic · Rabelaisian

A square meal

Meaning … fully satisfies hunger; not a snack or a token plate of food but a solid, properly filling one. Coined in the United States, it is now just as current in British English. Warm and informal; stresses…

Also known as a good square meal · square meal · three square meals · three square meals a day

Double-double

Meaning A coffee prepared with two servings of cream and two of sugar. Current informal food-and-drink term Regional use: Canada.

Also known as double double

Joie de vivre

Meaning … keeps the purely positive French sense. Literary and admiring in register, often italicised, and especially at home in travel, food and lifestyle writing. Regional use: General English (borrowed from French)…

Also known as joie de vie · joy of living

Meat and potatoes

Meaning … describes what is plain, basic, and unpretentious, whether food, work, or a person's tastes. The register is informal and the flavour is unmistakably American. Informal; hyphenate the attributive adjective (a…

Also known as a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy · meat-and-potatoes (adjective) · the meat and potatoes of something

Whet your appetite

Meaning … wants more of something. Originally said of hunger and food, it now mostly concerns curiosity, anticipation or enthusiasm, as when a preview, sample or first taste leaves an audience eager for the main event…

Also known as wet your appetite (common eggcorn) · whet someone's appetite · whet the appetite · whet your appetite for something

Eat, drink and be merry

Meaning Enjoy food, drink, and present pleasures, sometimes because the future is uncertain. Can celebrate present enjoyment or criticize short-sighted self-indulgence; context decides. Regional use: Biblical…

Also known as Let us eat, drink and be merry

Too much of a good thing

Meaning … Usually said with wry resignation about indulgence - food, sunshine, praise, free time - and often as the fixed retort that one really can have an excess of a pleasure. Everyday and conversational in…

Also known as can one desire too much of a good thing · you can get too much of a good thing · you can have too much of a good thing