IdiomFood & Drink
English
Englishtake the cake
Meaning: To outdo; to exceed normal behavior; metaphorically, to win the prize.
Example: “I've seen bad parking, but a car on the sidewalk really takes the cake.”
Origin: Most often traced to 19th-century cakewalk contests in African American communities in the southern United States, where couples competed in a strutting dance and the most graceful won a cake. Prizes of cake for contests go back to ancient Greece. The phrase took on its ironic sense, for something outrageous, by the early 20th century.
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