piece of cake
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piece of cake
A very easy task or accomplishment. I thought I was going to fail the test, but it turned out to be a piece of cake!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
piece of cake
Fig. something easy to do. No problem. When you know what you're doing, it's a piece of cake. Glad to help. It was a piece of cake. Rescuing frightened cats is my specialty. Piece of cake!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
piece of cake
Something easily accomplished, as in I had no trouble finding your house-a piece of cake. This expression originated in the Royal Air Force in the late 1930s for an easy mission, and the precise reference is as mysterious as that of the simile easy as pie. Possibly it evokes the easy accomplishment of swallowing a slice of sweet dessert.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
a piece of cake
COMMON If something is a piece of cake, it is very easy to do. If it's quiet, the job's a piece of cake. Her family have 11 children, so looking after 4 will be a piece of cake for her.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
a piece of cake
something easily achieved. informalFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
a piece of ˈcake
(informal) (British English also a piece of ˈpiss taboo, slang) (of a task, etc.) very easy to do: After climbing mountains in the Swiss Alps, going up English hills is a piece of cake. ♢ Taking photos should be a piece of cake with the new camera I’ve got. OPPOSITE: a tall orderFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
piece of cake
1. n. something easy to do. No problem. When you know what you’re doing, it’s a piece of cake.
2. exclam. It’s a piece of cake!; It’s easy! (Usually Piece of cake!) Rescuing drowning cats is my specialty. Piece of cake!
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
piece of cake
Informal Something very easy to do.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
piece of cake, it's a
It is laughably simple; it’s easily accomplished. This term is supposedly derived from the cakewalk, originally (mid-nineteenth century) an African-American promenading contest in which couples who devised the most intricate or appealing steps won a cake as a prize. Later the phrase came to mean a high-stepping dance with a strutting step, based on the promenade, as well as the music for such dancing. Finally, by the early twentieth century, cakewalk came to be slang for something stylish, pleasurable, and easy to do, and by the late 1930s it had been converted to piece of cake. Both piece of cake and cakewalk were British armed forces slang for an easy mission during World War II, and the former was used as the title for a television drama (1989; 1990 in America) about the Royal Air Force during that conflict. See also easy as pie; duck soup.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer