10 English Idioms with Food

Although idioms are not everyone’s “cup of tea”, they give English a certain spice. In this lesson, we look at idioms from the world of food. We will go over idioms such as “bread and butter”, “butter someone up”, “the big cheese”, “spill the beans”, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, and others. I will explain what they mean and how to use them in context. You might have heard or seen some of these before in books, movies, and shows. Everyone loves food, so you are bound to love these food idioms. And if you don’t understand right away, don’t cry over spilled milk, because you’ll get a chance to practice by doing the quiz after watching. Talk about having your cake and eating it, too!

Next, take the quiz on this lesson at https://www.engvid.com/10-engl....ish-idioms-with-food

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, we're going to look at idioms from the world of food. So, all of these idioms have some sort of food in them. And just to review: What is an idiom? An idiom is an expression or a collection of words, the words of which don't necessarily mean the same as the expression as a whole. Okay? So, for example, we're going to talk about beans, but this idiom has nothing to do with beans. So I'm going to give you 10 idioms. Here are five, and we're going to look at another five in a few minutes. Okay?

Let's start with: "Spill the beans". "To spill" means to drop, like, for example if you have a bag of beans and you tilt it, some of them will spill out. Okay? Or you have a glass, and you spill some water. So, what does: "Spill the beans" means? Mean? It means to tell a secret. Okay? To reveal a secret. So, some of you might know the idiom: "To let the cat out of the bag" - same idea. "To spill the beans" - to let out a secret. It could also mean to just basically reveal some details. So, I went out on a date last night, and then I come to work and all my co-workers-all my guy friends-they want to know what happened, so they say: "Come on. Spill the beans. How was last night? What did you do? What...?" etc., all these things. So, they want details. They want the secret and they want me to tell them. So, let out the secrets or the details.

Now, if you're talking about "bread and butter". Now, everybody knows bread, you spread some butter on it - very delicious; you eat that. But as an idiom, what does it mean when we say: "Something is my bread and butter"? So, if I say: "Well, that's my bread and butter" means that's my major source. Right? So, if I'm a car dealer and I'm in a particular neighbourhood, the people who live in that neighbourhood are my bread and butter; they're the ones who come and give me the most business. So, it could be the major source of income or the major source of support. So, some politicians, they target specifically white working-class people, or they target immigrants, or they target any particular demographic group because that group is their bread and butter; it is their major source of their support, and in some cases, their income. Okay?

"The big cheese". So, not: "What is the big cheese?" but: "Who is the big cheese?" The big cheese is the boss. Okay? So, there's a new decision, a new policy that's going to come into effect in the company, and I'm looking, and I'm going: "Whose idea was this? Was this?" And my co-worker says: "Oh, that's the big cheese. He wanted it, so it's got to be done." I say: "Well, that's stupid." Well, still. The big cheese wanted it - that's how it's going to be. So, the boss knows. Sometimes you might hear: "the head cheese", same idea. "The head cheese" means the boss or whoever's in charge at the place.

Now: "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." So, imagine a tree and it has apples, when the apple drops, it drops very close to the tree; not very far away from it. Right? Essentially, what this means is when we talk about a son and a father... A son and his father. So, if the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, we mean the son is very similar to his father. It could be in looks, but usually it's more about behaviour. And for some reason, we use it more about son and father than daughter and mother. So, when we... When somebody says: "Oh, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree" means that the son is doing the same things as his dad. Now, usually we talk about this in... Usually in negative things. So, when somebody does something bad and we say: "He's just like his dad"... We say: "Oh, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." He did bad things, his son is doing bad things; they're very similar in that way. If you want to remember: An apple is the fruit of a tree; a child is technically the fruit of a couple of people. Right?

Now, what does it mean "to bring home the bacon"? "Bacon", little strips of pork, you fry them and put them on your sandwich or whatever. "Bring home the bacon", it doesn't mean bring home pork. […]