you can not have
your cake and eat it






You can not have your cake and eat it

You can't enjoy both of two desirable but mutually exclusive alternatives – proverb




Related Idioms :




cakes and ale

merrymaking

1601 - William Shakespeare - Twelfth Night – Dost thou think because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?



the icing on the cake

an attractive but inessential addition or enhancement

A North American variant of this phrase is the frosting on the cake.

1996 - Independent - State education is no longer always free. The jumble sale and the summer fair, which used to provide the icing on the school cake, are now providing the staple fare.



a piece of cake

something easily achieved – Informal



sell like hot cakes = go like hot cakes

be sold quickly and in large quantities.



a slice of the cake

a share of the benefits or profits – informal

1991 - Robert Reiner - Chief Constables - Perhaps it's because they're such good spenders that our slice of the cake is sufficient for all we want.



take the cake

be the most remarkable – informal

1925 - P. G. Wodehouse - Letter - Of all the poisonous, foul, ghastly places, Cannes takes the biscuit with absurd ease.

In most of these idioms cake is used as a metaphor for something pleasant or desirable.




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