have one's cake and eat it too
Meaning: To want two things that cannot both be had.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “You want a pay raise and a four-day week? You can't have your cake and eat it too.”
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Already a saying in 1538, when the Duke of Norfolk wrote to Thomas Cromwell that "a man can not have his cake and eat his cake." John Heywood's proverb collection of 1546 put it the other way around — "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" — which makes the logic plainer: once it is eaten, it is gone.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre — literally: To have the butter and the money for the butter
- Italian: Avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca — literally: To have the barrel full and the wife drunk
More idioms — Food & Drink
- eat one's words — To admit that something one said was wrong.
- one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach — To take more food than one can eat; more broadly, to want more than one can handle.
- have a lot on one's plate — To have many tasks or problems to deal with.
- eat humble pie — To admit one was wrong and apologize humbly.
- a banana republic — A small, politically unstable country dominated by a corrupt elite or foreign business.
- drain the cup to the dregs — To endure a hardship or humiliation to the very end.
More English idioms
- muddy the waters — To make a situation confusing, often on purpose.
- be bone idle — To be extremely lazy.
- like pulling teeth — Extremely difficult, especially when trying to get someone to cooperate.
- have the wind in one's sails — To be doing well and moving forward with confidence and momentum.
- put one's foot in it — To say something tactless or embarrassing.
- talk behind someone's back — To say unkind things about someone when they are not present.
From our tongue twisters
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.