cup of tea
35
3.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
lo mío
- The action movie was exciting, but it's not my cup of tea.
Usually not my cup of tea, but it worked so well for me.
- Usually not my cup of tea, but it worked so well for me.
- The bronze palette wasn't really my cup of tea.
- You're the bell of the mall, but you ain't my cup of tea.
- They've never, I've never really been their cup of tea.
- I mean it might look good on other people but it's just not my cup of tea.
- Some things, you know, I like makeup that's quick and simple and doing multiple steps isn't my cup of tea on a normal everyday basis.
- I mean, how I know this probably isn't like a lot of people's cup of tea, but that like crunchiness, the the sweetness to it as well.
Examples
-
There's nothing a good old cup of tea won't settle.
-
We never go, though Martha and I often have a cup of tea together in my kitchen or hers.
Fiction book (1993) -
Usually not my cup of tea, but it worked so well for me.
-
So not my cup of tea, not how I want my skin to look.
-
I am sorry, Mr. Jimmy, but your movie is not my cup of tea.
Fiction book (1998) -
There was nothing, in times of stress, like a good hot cup of tea.
Fiction book (1990) -
How nice that they gave her a cup of tea while she waited.
Fiction book (2001) -
And now I'll have a cup of tea and one of those... nice cucumber sandwiches you promised me.
-
At eleven o'clock, they both stopped for a cup of tea and a chance to gossip.
Fiction book (1993) -
"Let's go down to the kitchen and make a cup of tea," Joanne said softly.
Fiction book (2001)
How Appealing
Surface Forms
Morphology
cup + of + tea
The literal constituents ('cup' + 'of' + 'tea') point to a beverage, and the idiomatic meaning 'something you like or are good at' is a metaphorical extension from a preferred drink to personal preference. This mapping is somewhat recognizable but conventionalized and culture-specific, so a B1 learner who knows the words may suspect a relation to liking but would not fully predict the established idiomatic sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase cup of tea comes from the simple image of a small, personal drink: your own cup of tea shows your taste. So, when you say something is 'not my cup of tea', you mean it is 'not something you enjoy'.