what does the saying 'you can't have your cake and eat it too' mean?

Answer 1

The way I understand it, you can have something or you can use it up, but you can't have it both ways.

Answer 2

This phrase is easier to understand if it is read as "You can't eat your cake, and have it too". Obviously once you've eaten your cake, you won't have it any more.

People get confused because we use the expression “have some cake” to mean “eat some cake,” and they therefore misunderstand what “have” means in this expression.

This idiom is used for expressing the impossibility of having something both ways, if those two ways conflict.

EXAMPLE:
Person A: "He works so hard to pay for that fancy house of his that he never has any time to stay home and enjoy it."
Person B: "Yeah, you can't have your cake and eat it too."

Answer 3

To wish to have one's cake and eat it too or simply have one's cake and eat it (sometimes eat one's cake and have it too) is to want more than one can handle or deserve, or to try to have two incompatible things. This is a popular English idiomatic proverb, or figure of speech.

Answer 4

I personally learned what this phrase means the hard way, like I seem to learn everything in life. I am a lesbian, and was in a perfectly fine relationship with a wonderful woman, although she lacked the sexual needs that I did. I started working as an Optician at an optometric practice just 4 blocks from our home. The first day there the female postal carrier who came in made me take a "double-take", which was mutual, and there was an instant attraction between us. She was physically toned and tan with large breasts and piercing dark Italian eyes that had a certain twinkle in them, and when she said "hi there" she had the sexiest voice I had ever heard in my life, with that slight raspiness-but not masculine. Well, within a few days she asked me out to lunch with her, but I respectfully declined, telling her I had a girlriend.
She replied,"That's okay, so do I." Well, I left it at that. We closed the office every Friday, but I would work 9 to 1 to do patient chart updating and bookkeeping. Well, one Friday I let the mailcarrier in and she asked to use the restroom. I re-locked the door and returned to my work. The next thing I know, "postal", as I came to call her, returned from the restroom topless (with the most beautiful naturally firm breasts I have ever seen-and I am a real breast woman-and a lustfull look in her eyes.) I tried to resist, but what happened right there in the office waiting room, desk, floor, even exam room chair I could not resist. This began a 3 year affair of special deliveries and a lot of stamp licking inside of a postal truck, with me returning from lunch trying to explain why my lab coat and hair looked like I had been through a wind-tunnel. I thought that having my cake and eating it too was completely possible, and whoever said that was wrong- because I had my cake at home and I was eating my side-dish cake as well, and felt a rush from it all.Well, when Postal started delivering mail to my home on my days off, I was bound to get caught sooner or later. It was sooner rather than later. The girlfriend had been suspecting something all along, and came home early and burst inside to catch us right in the act on the living room floor. A physical fight ensued, (with both me and Postal totally naked) and we had to run for our lives naked down the street, jump in the mail truck and speed off. We opened a package from -I don't want to name the clothing company for fear of any consequences-and found 3 old ladies housedresses. At least it was something to cover our asses! I could go on, but I ended up getting dumped by Postal, leaving my good relationship damaged beyond repair. I was left all alone, remorseful, guilty and knowing the meaning of "You can't have your cake and eat it too."

Answer 5

it's a way of saying you cant have everything and you cant always have it your way. sometimes you have to chose one thing or another. You cant have your cake and eat it too, cause if you eat it you'll no longer have cake.

Answer 6

it is simple it is a redunant sentance as it can not be true in this but it is a choice as it can either be saved for another day or you can eat it bitter sweet as it is but then it is all gone for you have not saved it for a better day is this not the way you try to reason so much with your plays

Answer 7

You can't do nothing and get what you want. For example, I can't sit and answer questions on YA and expect my house to be clean and the food ready for the Christmas party at my house tonight.

Answer 8

It means that you can't have both of two alternatives, or (usually) even the better part of each. .

Answer 9

Once you've eaten it, it's gone!