to bring home the bacon
9
4.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
ganar el pan
- Not only does he bring home the bacon, but he's gotta cook it too, doesn't he?
- got to bring home the bacon
- way to bring home the bacon
Woman chased quiet at home, working to support the husband who brings home the bacon.
- Woman chased quiet at home, working to support the husband who brings home the bacon.
Examples
-
I'm bringing home the bacon.
Fiction book (1996) -
She brings home the bacon, too, while I keep an eye on our new baby, Tina.
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I have to bring home the bacon now.
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Maybe, perhaps, you could bring home the bacon?
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Daddy brought home the bacon, baby.
-
Unable to bring home the bacon, he no longer gets to sit at the head of the table.
Academic text (2002) -
Somebody's got to bring home the bacon.
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Somebody's gotta bring home the bacon while you just stand here all day.
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Put on the eggs, Mama, 'cause Daddy's gonna bring home the bacon, know what I mean?
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I work hard every day to bring home the bacon for my family.
Synonyms
∞
1.9
Earn money to support yourself or other people
38
3.3
To earn money regularly for your family
38
2.8
To earn enough money to support yourself or your family
29
3.0
To receive pay from work after taxes and other deductions
Do enough work, paid or not, to pay for food and a place to live
To give someone money or a job so they can live
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
Literally the phrase means to carry pork to one's house (bring + home + bacon), but its idiomatic sense 'earn money to support the family' is a metaphorical extension where food stands for livelihood. While the image of bringing food home can cue the general idea of providing for a household (a cross-linguistic metaphor), the specific conventionalized meaning is not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom bring home the bacon may come from an old English custom where a married couple who proved their love were given a large piece of bacon to bring home. So, bring home the bacon came to mean 'to win or earn something important', and today it means 'to earn money to support your family'.