Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre
Meaning: To want to have it both ways.
Language: French
Literally: To have the butter and the money for the butter
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Attested from at least the late 19th century, and built on plain farm arithmetic: having sold your butter you may honestly keep the money or keep the butter, but not both, since the one was exchanged for the other. Wanting both is wanting the transaction to run only in your favor. The fuller and cruder form adds the dairywoman herself, and the expression is more often heard with vouloir than avoir.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: Avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca — literally: To have the barrel full and the wife drunk
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Faire la fine bouche — To be overly picky or hard to please.
- Tourner autour du pot — To beat around the bush.
- Casser du sucre sur le dos de quelqu'un — To talk behind someone's back.
- faire ses choux gras — Profiting greatly from a situation at someone else's expense.
- manger ses paroles — Having to take back or admit one was wrong about something said.
- mettre l'eau à la bouche — Making someone crave or desire something through temptation.
More French idioms
- Noyer le poisson — To confuse the issue deliberately; to dodge a question.
- Chercher midi à quatorze heures — To overcomplicate a simple matter.
- Appeler un chat un chat — To call things by their proper name; to speak bluntly.
- Donner sa langue au chat — To give up trying to guess the answer.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be extremely lazy.
- Prendre ses jambes à son cou — To run away very fast.