Meaning
To understand where your own advantage lies and to act accordingly, especially by staying on good terms with whoever controls that benefit; usually said with wry acknowledgement of someone's shrewdness, as in 'she knows which side her bread is buttered on'. Informal to neutral; almost always carries a hint of calculation or self-interest rather than pure wisdom. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The earliest known record is John Heywood's 1546 proverb collection: 'I knowe on whiche syde my breade is buttred.' The picture is kitchen logic: the butter is the valuable part of the slice, so whoever knows which side carries it knows where their benefit lies and keeps it facing up. Francis Grose's 1788 Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue still lists the expression as proverbial. A sibling phrase, 'to want one's bread buttered on both sides' (to be greedy for double advantage), is documented only from 1801, though its appearance in print as an already-familiar quip suggests earlier currency.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- know on which side your bread is buttered
- know which side one's bread is buttered on
- knows which side his bread is buttered
- see which side the bread is buttered
Usage Examples
- He praised the chair's reorganisation plan for a full hour; he knows which side his bread is buttered.
- Delegate votes however you like, but the shipyard representatives know which side their bread is buttered on.
- Knowing which side her bread was buttered, the young agent stayed scrupulously polite to both feuding partners.