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.

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
• Japanese: 月とスッピン (tsuki to suppin)

• Spanish: como agua y aceite

References

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