to look like a dog's breakfast
- idiom
- UK
:
verse desastroso
- His attempt at making a cake looked like a dog's breakfast when he pulled it out of the oven.
Examples
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She wore so many clashing colors that her outfit looked like a dog's breakfast.
-
After the storm, the garden looked like a dog's breakfast with branches and leaves everywhere.
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This room looks like a dog's breakfast!
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After the party, the kitchen looked like a dog's breakfast.
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After the party, the living room looked like a dog's breakfast, with empty bottles and scattered snacks everywhere.
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The student’s desk was covered in papers, textbooks, and junk food, making it look like a dog's breakfast.
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When the dog finished its meal, the bowl was left tipped over and the floor looked like a dog's breakfast.
Synonyms
1
4.5
To seem messy because your clothes or hair are not neat
Seem very untidy and messy
Appear very messy and dirty with things everywhere
Antonyms
How Messy
Surface Forms
Morphology
look + like + a + dog's + breakfast
While the verb phrase 'look like' is transparent, the noun phrase 'a dog's breakfast' is idiomatic: the literal meanings of 'dog' and 'breakfast' do not compositionally yield 'very messy or disorganized.' This is a culturally specific metaphor (chiefly British) whose overall meaning is not predictable from its parts, so a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words would be unlikely to infer it.
Etymology
The idiom look like a dog's breakfast may come from the image of a bowl of mixed scraps given to a dog, which looks untidy and all mixed up. So, to look like a dog's breakfast means 'to be very messy or disorganized'.