to butter someone's bread on both sides

9.9

To benefit from two people or groups at the same time by being dishonest

idiom

Informal

: sacar provecho de ambos lados

He always finds a way to butter his bread on both sides in business deals.

Examples

If you keep buttering your bread on both sides, people will start to notice your duplicity.
Trying to butter your bread on both sides rarely works without consequences.
Don't butter his bread on both sides!
She is always buttering his bread on both sides.
He always finds a way to butter his bread on both sides in business deals.
If you keep buttering your bread on both sides, it will be hard for others to trust you.
Trying to butter your bread on both sides can lead to unexpected pitfalls.

Synonyms

to have it both ways

vsto butter someone's bread on both sides

Informal

27 7.2

To try to get the good parts of two opposite choices at the same time

is about gaining from two different sources simultaneously often from selfish opportunism

to make out like a bandit

vsto butter someone's bread on both sides

Informal

2 8.4

Get a lot of money or things by luck

involves benefiting from two sources at once rather than a single big gain

to play it for all it's worth

vsto butter someone's bread on both sides

Informal

7.5

Use a chance as much as possible to get the most from it

focuses on benefiting from two different sources rather than fully exploiting one chance

How Opportunistic

to butter someone's bread on both sides

Informal

9.9

to exploit

214 5.6

to manipulate

382 6.1

Surface Forms

butter someone's bread on both sides infinitive

buttered someone's bread on both sides past

buttered someone's bread on both sides past participle

buttering someone's bread on both sides present participle

butters someone's bread on both sides third person singular

Morphology

butter + someone's + bread + on + both + side

The literal image of spreading butter on both sides of someone's bread does not clearly convey the sense of taking advantage of two sources or opportunism; the metaphorical extension to benefiting from multiple opportunities is culture-specific and not a straightforward composition of the constituents. A B1 learner who knows the words would likely not infer the idiomatic meaning without prior exposure, so the expression functions as an opaque idiom.

Etymology

Butter someone's bread on both sides paints a simple picture: spreading butter on bread on both sides to get extra richness from the same slice. So, it means 'to get benefits from two different places at the same time', often in a greedy or unfair way.