take the biscuit
Meaning: to be the most outrageous or remarkable thing; to win or excel.
Language: English
Literally: to take the biscuit
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: The British reshaping of an older American phrase. "Take the cake" is the earlier form and has a documented source: the cakewalk, a competitive strutting dance developed by enslaved and later free Black Americans in the nineteenth century, in which the couple judged best was awarded a cake as the prize. To take the cake was therefore to win outright, and the sarcastic modern sense — that something is outstanding in the wrong direction — is an ironic inversion of a genuine victory. British English substituted the biscuit late in the nineteenth century, keeping the structure and the irony while swapping in a more domestic prize. Both forms now do essentially the same work, and the sarcastic use has almost entirely displaced the literal one.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- spill the tea — to reveal gossip or scandalous information.
- not worth your salt — incompetent; not deserving of wages or respect.
- bring home the bacon — to provide income; to succeed in earning money.
- a storm in a teacup — excessive fuss over something trivial; tempest in a teapot.
- cry over spilled milk — to regret something past; useless to grieve over unchangeable events.
- hard pill to swallow — difficult to accept; unpleasant truth or reality.
More English idioms
- beat around the bush — to avoid addressing the main point; to speak indirectly.
- give someone the cold shoulder — to deliberately treat someone with indifference or ignore them.
- let the cat out of the bag — to reveal a secret inadvertently.
- pull your punches — to hold back; to be less forceful than you could be.
- go belly up — to fail completely; to go bankrupt.
- wear your heart on your sleeve — to display emotions openly; to be transparent about feelings.
From our proverbs
- It is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog — Determination and spirit matter far more than physical size or advantage.
- A good beginning makes a good ending — How you start something largely determines how it will finish; preparation and intention…
- A word once spoken can never be recalled — Choose your words carefully, for once said they cannot be unsaid.