on a plate

English

Pronunciation

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Prepositional phrase

on a plate

1. (colloquial) Within easy reach; easily achieved.

   Synonyms: on a platter, on a silver platter

   • 2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian‎^[1]:

     The row started over who will run for parliament in a wealthy rightwing constituency on the left bank in Paris, a safe seat for Sarkozy's ruling UMP. Dati is already a local mayor in the neighbourhood, a job felt to have been handed to her on a plate when she was a Sarkozy favourite. She has since fallen from grace, and when she left government she took a European parliament seat, considered a consolation prize.

   • 2018 December 1, Tom Rostance, “Southampton 2 - 2 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     United looked listless, but found the inspiration they were badly lacking in Rashford. First the 21-year-old collected a long ball, bounced through a half-hearted challenge from Maya Yoshida and laid a chance on a plate for Lukaku.

Translations

(idiomatic) within easy reach, easily achieved

• Finnish: hopealautasella, lautasella
• French: sur un plateau d’argent (fr), sur un plateau (fr)
• German: auf dem Silbertablett, auf dem silbernen Tablett
• Polish: na tacy

See also

• on one's plate

Further reading

• “on a plate”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “hand something to someone on a plate” (US) / “hand something to someone on a plate” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.

Anagrams

• Pantaleo