50 Idioms About Meat and Dairy Products

By Mark Nichol

Expressions that figuratively to livestock and other animals and animal products abound in
English idiom. Here are many such morsels.
12. To bring home the bacon is to earn money at a job, but to save (someones) bacon
is to help or rescue someone when they are in trouble or risking failure.
35. To beef about (someone) is to complain or criticize, but have a beef with someone
is to hold a grudge, while to beef up something is to strengthen it.
6. Wheres the beef? is a challenge or claim indicating that an idea is without sufficient
substance.
78. A chicken is a fearful person, and to chicken out is to opt, out of fear, not to do
something.
9. A chicken-and-egg argument is a circuitous one.
1012. Chicken feed is an insubstantial amount of money, and chicken scratch is
illegible writing, while to play chicken is to engage in a standoff to determine who will back
down first.
13. To say that the chickens have come home to roost means that consequences are
imminent.
14. The exhortation Dont count your chickens before theyre hatched cautions one not to
act as if a hoped-for outcome has already occurred.
15. One who is no spring chicken is not young anymore.
16. To run around like a headless chicken (or like a chicken with its head cut off) is to
panic or worry aimlessly.
1719. To have bigger fish to fry is to have more important things to do, but a fine kettle
of fish is an unfortunate situation, while a different kettle of fish suggests something is
unrelated to the topic
2021. To make hamburger or make mincemeat of someone or something is to defeat
or destroy the person or the thing.
22. To be a meat-and-potatoes person is to like simple things.
23. A meat market is a venue people frequent to seek sex partners.
24. Something that is meat and drink to someone is a skill or pastime that they enjoy and
that is very easy for them.
25. One who is dead meat is a target for harm or punishment.
26. To say that one mans meat is another mans poison is to say that what one person
may like, another may dislike.
27. The meat of the matter is the essence of an issue or problem.
28. Something that is pork barrel is a government spending project cynically designed to
garner support.
29. To pork out is to eat too much.
30. To stop cold turkey is to do so abruptly.
31. To butter (someone) up is to flatter that person.
32. To say that butter wouldnt melt in (ones) mouth is to imply that they are feigning
innocence by looking calm and cool.
33. To cheese (someone) off is to anger or disgust someone.

34. A big cheese is a leader or somewhat important (sometimes jocularly rendered in

French: le grande fromage).
35. To cut the cheese is vulgar slang meaning produce flatulence.
36. Say, Cheese! is an exhortation to smile for a photograph.
3738. The cream of the crop is the best in its class; the crme de la crme is the best
of the best.
3940. A good egg is a good person, and a bad egg is a bad person.
4145. To put all (ones) eggs in one basket is to risk everything at once, but to lay an
egg is to perform poorly, and to have egg on (ones) face is to be left embarrassed or
humiliated, while to egg (someone) on is to goad someone to something that is generally
ill advised. A nest egg is a savings fund.
46. To say that one cant make an omelette without breaking some (or the) eggs means
that nothing can be accomplished without some difficulty.
47. To cry over spilled milk is to dwell over something that cannot be undone.
48. To be full of the milk of human kindness is to generously display kindness and/or
sympathy.
4950. To milk (someone) for (something) is to pressure the person, but to milk
(something) for all its worth is to exploit something to the greatest extent possible.