gravy train
9
6.9
- noun
- /ˈɡreɪvi treɪn/
- Informal
:
vida fácil
- After years of working in the same job with minimal effort, she finally realized she was on a gravy train.
- ride the gravy train
- get on that gravy train
- Stop the gravy train
It just, it just is like, like I'm, I don't know if the gravy train's going to keep going and for how long.
- It just, it just is like, like I'm, I don't know if the gravy train's going to keep going and for how long.
- So they had to ride the gravy train all the way through, you know, and ride it to the very end.
Examples
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The bloated financial sector is on the gravy train (they do well even in economic downturns).
Blog text (31) -
When the high-income people can't pay any more taxes, the gravy train runs out.
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So I found me a new gravy train.
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Waiting for the gravy train.
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But because he wants to end the gravy train in Washington, both parties are against him.
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"All you have to do to stay on that gravy train is vote."
Blog text (33) -
I keep the gravy train rolling, and we get everything we ever wanted.
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The undereducated and lower class have to realize that eventually the gravy train has to end.
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And not wanting to miss out on the gravy train, other pop stars (both male and female) join her.
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Once the "takers" figure out the gravy train is coming to a halt, maybe they will get some sense.
Blog text (16)
Synonyms
8
3.2
Money someone earns with little work
Antonyms
How Lucrative
Surface Forms
Morphology
gravy + train
The sense 'easy money or benefits with little effort' cannot be straightforwardly derived from the literal constituents: 'gravy' is primarily a sauce (its slang sense of extra gain is lower-frequency) and 'train' is a vehicle, so their combination does not transparently signal the idiomatic notion. This is a slangy, idiomatic English phrase whose overall meaning must be learned as a unit rather than predicted from its parts, making it opaque to a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Gravy train paints a picture of sitting on a train while rich gravy keeps coming, so you enjoy things without doing much work. That's why it means 'a situation that gives a lot of money or benefits with very little effort'.