butter on someone's bread
- idiom
:
fuente de ingresos
- Having a steady job puts butter on his bread and pays the bills.
Examples
-
She relies on her art sales for butter on her bread.
-
Writing articles every week is what puts butter on my bread.
-
Having a steady job is like butter on my bread.
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His investments are the butter on her bread.
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Having a steady job puts butter on his bread and pays the bills.
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She relies on her art sales for butter on her bread.
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Writing articles every week is what puts butter on my bread.
Synonyms
16
3.0
The main way a person earns money
4
6.4
Money or work that helps you live
Antonyms
How Important
22
3.5
∞
1.2
51
1.4
- Informal
1
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
butter + on + someone's + bread
The image of 'butter' added to 'bread' evokes enhancement or sustenance, so a learner who knows the constituents will likely infer a general sense of support or something that makes life easier. However, the shift to the specific sense 'source of income' depends on a cultural/idiomatic mapping (and sometimes knowledge of 'bread' as slang for money), so the exact meaning is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Butter on someone's bread comes from the simple idea of putting butter on bread to make a plain meal nicer and help you eat. That's why it means 'a source of income', the money or work that keeps you fed and pays the bills.