cakes and ale
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night (written c. 1601–1602), Act II, scene iii: see the quotation.[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˌkeɪks n̩ ˈeɪl/
- Rhymes: -eɪl
Noun[edit]
cakes and ale pl (plural only) (idiomatic, British, dated)
- The simple material pleasures of life.
- 1857 May, “[Notices of Books.] Ivors. By the Author of ‘Amy Herbert,’ ‘Cleve Hall,’ &c. In Two Volumes. Second Edition. New York, D. Appleton and Company. 1857.”, in Henry N[orman] Hudson, editor, The American Church Monthly, volume 1, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Edward P. Allen, […], →OCLC, page 389:
- To furnish the cakes and ale of the mind, is, we take it, the proper virtue of novels. It is for mental delight and recreation that we resort to them.
- Lively fun and merrymaking.
- c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 261, column 2:
- Doſt thou thinke becauſe thou art vertuous, there ſhall be no more Cakes and Ale?
Translations[edit]
simple material pleasures of life
lively fun and merrymaking
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See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ “cakes and ale, n.” under “cake, n. and adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2021; “cakes and ale, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Categories:
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪl
- Rhymes:English/eɪl/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English multiword terms
- English pluralia tantum
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- British English
- English dated terms
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- English terms first attested in Shakespeare
- en:Food and drink