Meaning
Describes something idyllically pleasant, easy, or trouble-free, most often in assertions like 'everything is peaches and cream' and frequently in negated form to point out hardship. Also describes a fair, smooth complexion with rosy cheeks, as in 'a peaches-and-cream complexion'. Informal in both uses. Informal and warmly positive, but frequently ironic in negative constructions such as 'life is not all peaches and cream'. Regional use: American English (now widely understood elsewhere).
Origin
The literal dish, fresh peaches served with cream, was a prized summer treat in nineteenth-century America, and the figurative uses grew out of earlier peach compliments: 'peach' for an attractive woman is recorded from 1754, and 'a peach' for an admirable person or thing by 1904 (Etymonline). The complexion sense of 'peaches and cream' is documented from 1901 (Etymonline). The OED, as summarized by The Phrase Finder, also records the broader sense of a desirable, pleasant state of affairs and labels the expression an American usage. The dessert is much older than the metaphor; only around the turn of the twentieth century did the phrase take on figurative life.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- everything is peaches and cream
- life is just peaches and cream
- not all peaches and cream
- peaches-and-cream (compound modifier)
- peachy
Usage Examples
- Her new moisturizer promises a peaches-and-cream complexion by midsummer.
- The first year of the partnership was all peaches and cream; the second brought lawsuits.
- Once the grant money came through, everything at the shelter was peaches and cream.