chalk and cheese

English

Some cheeses look superficially like chalk.

The surface of chalk may look like cheese, but it is actually harder than most cheeses.

Alternative forms

• like chalk and cheese

Etymology

Attested in variant form since 1393. The surface of some cheeses, particularly unaged ones, looks similar to chalk – white, crumbling – but in substance cheese is much softer than chalk.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

chalk and cheese (uncountable)

1. (Britain, New Zealand, idiomatic) Said of things that are superficially alike but very different in substance.

Synonyms

• apples and oranges
• night and day, day and night

Translations

superficially alike but different

• Dutch: het verschil van dag en nacht n
• German: (superficially similar, but not the same) Äpfel und Birnen, (completely different) wie Tag und Nacht

• Japanese: 月とスッピン (tsuki to suppin)
• Spanish: parecerse como un huevo a una castaña, como agua y aceite

References

• "chalk and cheese", World Wide Words, Michael Quinion