chalk and cheese
1
6.3
- idiom
- UK
:
como el agua y el aceite
- In terms of their communication styles, they are like chalk and cheese: one is very formal and the other is quite casual.
- different as chalk and cheese
- as chalk and cheese
I mean they were twins, but even though they look the same, they're completely different, right, Obviously chalk and cheese ish.
- I mean they were twins, but even though they look the same, they're completely different, right, Obviously chalk and cheese ish.
Examples
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Those two friends are as different as chalk and cheese; one loves classical music while the other prefers heavy metal.
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As for tablets being better and cheaper, it's chalk and cheese, really.
Blog text (19) -
Those two, they're like chalk and cheese when it comes to their taste in things.
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You're as different as chalk and cheese.
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If I compare Siemens' first offerings of the Step7 programming package to what we have today, it is chalk and cheese.
Blog text (25) -
You and your sister are like chalk and cheese when it comes to your personalities.
Synonyms
11
7.7
So different that people cannot agree
1
4.6
People or things that are completely different and do not get along
Impossible to make two people or ideas agree
Very different from each other in important ways
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
Although the constituents 'chalk' and 'cheese' are concrete and clearly different items, allowing a learner to infer some sense of contrast, the specific conventionalized meaning 'completely different/incompatible' comes from a fixed cultural pairing rather than straightforward compositional logic. The expression gives a hint of opposition but its idiomatic, conventionalized use is not fully predictable to a B1 learner who has not seen the phrase before.
Etymology
Chalk and cheese may come from the simple image of chalk as a dry white thing used for writing and cheese as soft food you eat. Because they look and are used so differently, people use the phrase to say two things are 'completely different'.