ive always heard that pfrase but never have knwon what it means can someone please tell me
2006-12-27 07:57:18 · 28 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
it means you desire the best of both worlds, but alas cannot have both.
2006-12-27 07:58:19 · answer #1 · answered by Hushyanoize 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
To wish to have one's cake and eat it too is to want more than one can handle or deserve, or to try to have two incompatible things.
The phrase's earliest recording is from 1546 as "wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?" alluding to the impossibility of eating your cake and still having it afterwards; the modern version (where the clauses are reversed) is a corruption which was first signaled in 1812.
2006-12-27 07:59:15 · answer #2 · answered by Great Dane 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I'm trying to think of a good example for you, but what it means is that you can't have things both ways. Sometimes people want X, but they don't want say the inconvienence that goes with X. So if you want X (the cake) you can have it, but you can't eat it too. (You can't avoid the negative stuff that comes with X.)
2006-12-27 08:00:36 · answer #3 · answered by danl747 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
A dramatist named John Heywood was the first to use it, at least in the written form. The expression appears in his "A dialogue Conteinyng the Nomber in Effect of All the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue," a page-turner from the year 1546. (Please note the fancy Middle English spelling.) Originally, the saying went, "Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and haue your cake?"
Basically, he was saying sometimes you have to make a decision and live with the consequences. To "eat your cake and have it too" (the original expression) means you want it both ways. If you eat your cake, you no longer have your cake, because (duh) you already ate it. Hope it tasted good.
2006-12-27 07:59:38 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
it is a phrase that means it is more you can handle or you deserve.
2014-12-26 10:16:30 · answer #5 · answered by Sheila 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If you eat your cake, then you no longer have it because it’s been eaten. Similarly if you have your cake, then it hasn’t been eaten. The phrase refers to two mutually exclusive propositions or conditions which cannot both be simultaneously true or acted upon.
2006-12-27 08:07:06 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A Queen coined that phrase I think......or was that "Let them eat cake" ? Oops, I am wrong again: Below is what is listed as to your query (within this search)
The Straight Dope: Did Marie Antoinette really say "let them eat cake"?
2006-12-27 08:01:59 · answer #7 · answered by Garret Tripp 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It means that when you want two conflicting things, you can't have both of them. For example....
If I wanted to have a serious relationship with my boyfriend but also have the freedom to mess around with other guys, I couldn't do that because having a serious relationship means that you're not fooling around with other people.
I hope that makes sense?!?!
2006-12-27 07:59:27 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's dumb actually; of course everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too (what's the point in having cake if you can't eat it??)
Anyway, it means you want it all. Like a man who has a wife, and a mistress. Some would say that he wants to have his cake and eat it too.
2006-12-27 07:59:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Fence sitting. You can either eat the cake or keep it intact, but you can't do both. It refers to indecision.
2006-12-27 08:06:29 · answer #10 · answered by S. B. 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
dont be greedy! but i dont really like that phrase, whats the point in having a cake if you cant eat it too?!
2006-12-27 08:05:17 · answer #11 · answered by Matt E 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋