Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to fry someone's bacon

to fry someone's bacon

9.9
To do a favor that helps someone in a hard situation
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : sacar las castañas del fuego
  • She always knows how to fry someone's bacon when a crisis arises at work.

Examples

  • Thanks for staying late to fry my bacon when the deadline was so tight.

  • Could you fry my bacon by covering my shift tomorrow?

  • Can you fry my bacon this time?

  • She really fried his bacon when she helped him.

  • Could you fry my bacon by covering my shift tomorrow?

  • Thanks for staying late to fry my bacon when the deadline was so tight.

  • She always knows how to fry someone's bacon when a crisis arises at work.

Synonyms

to do someone any favors
vsto fry someone's bacon
  • Informal
48 5.1

Give someone help that does more harm than good

focuses on helping out of a difficult situation rather than minor assistance
to pull someone's bacon out of the fire
vsto fry someone's bacon
  • Informal
1 8.9

Save someone from a difficult situation at the last moment

helps in difficult situations without the urgent last moment rescue

Antonyms

to neglect
256 3.8

Fail to care for someone or something you should look after

to hinder
75 3.6

To make it difficult for people or things to do something

How Helpful

to bail out
84 3.7
to go out of one's way
  • Informal
53 3.5
to fry someone's bacon
  • Informal
9.9
help
∞ 1.0
to do someone any favors
  • Informal
48 5.1

Surface Forms

fry someone's bacon infinitive
fried someone's bacon past
fried someone's bacon past participle
frying someone's bacon present participle
frys someone's bacon third person singular

Morphology

fry + someone's + bacon

The meaning 'to help someone out / do them a favor' cannot be derived from the literal constituents 'fry' and 'bacon'—cooking someone's bacon does not transparently map onto assistance. This appears to be an idiomatic or rare usage without a clear cross-linguistic analogue, so a B1 learner who only knows the words would not predict the intended sense.

Etymology

Fry someone's bacon may come from the simple image of cooking a hot breakfast for someone who needs help. If you fry their bacon you are doing a useful, practical favor, so the phrase came to mean 'to help someone out'.