Salty language

What we talk about when we talk about food

By Caroline Cummins

March 21, 2007

We think about food when we’re hungry, or planning a trip to the grocery store, or just plain daydreaming. We think about food for all sorts of reasons. But how often do we think about the food idioms we use, every day, when we’re not thinking about food at all?

Here’s a random list of ordinary figures of English speech:

the apple of one’s eye
beefing it up
bringing home the bacon
buttering someone up
chewing the fat
chickening out
cool as a cucumber
counting chickens before they’ve hatched
the cream rises to the top
cut the mustard
easy as pie
feeling sheepish
get egg on your face
get on the gravy train
get goosebumps
going bananas
going whole hog
knowing which side your bread is buttered on
out of the frying pan, into the fire
pie in the sky
pigging out
the proof is in the pudding
selling like hotcakes
separating the wheat from the chaff
slower than molasses
small potatoes
smelling fishy
smooth like butter
that’s how the cookie crumbles
too many cooks spoil the broth
your goose is cooked
walking on eggshells

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