See beer and skittles in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "Found as early as 1837, in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, where it appears in the form, “It’s a reg’lar holiday to them—all porter and skittles”. The most common form, as a negative admonition, appears to have been popularized by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857, see quotation below).",
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"derived": [
{
"word": "life is not all beer and skittles"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1857, Thomas Hughes, chapter 2, in Tom Brown's School Days:",
"text": "Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles—but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1911, Anthony Hope, chapter 22, in Mrs. Maxon Protests, page 259:",
"text": "Being a soldier's wife isn't all beer and skittles.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 March 24, John Walsh, “The perils of reviewing restaurants”, in The Independent:",
"text": "His plight reveals a truth that's often obscured by the envy of newspaper readers; that it's not all beer and skittles in restaurant-critic land.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2022 October 5, Nick Brodrick, “Pendolinos: a huge role to play”, in RAIL, number 967, page 41:",
"text": "Such highly intensive deployment left little wriggle room, something with which Dunster is all too familiar. \"It hasn't all been beer and skittles,\" he says dryly.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Fun times; pleasure and leisure."
],
"id": "en-beer_and_skittles-en-noun-ro-2a3ra",
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"(chiefly UK, idiomatic) Fun times; pleasure and leisure."
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{
"word": "peaches and cream"
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{
"word": "bed of roses"
},
{
"word": "bowl of cherries"
},
{
"word": "sunshine and rainbows"
},
{
"word": "pleasure"
},
{
"word": "skittles and beer"
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "flors i violes"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "rozengeur en maneschijn"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "hauskanpito"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "fun times",
"tags": [
"masculine"
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"word": "bon temps"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "jólin"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "no todo el monte es orégano"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "dans på rosor"
}
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"word": "beer and skittles"
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"word": "life is not all beer and skittles"
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"etymology_text": "Found as early as 1837, in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, where it appears in the form, “It’s a reg’lar holiday to them—all porter and skittles”. The most common form, as a negative admonition, appears to have been popularized by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857, see quotation below).",
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"ref": "1857, Thomas Hughes, chapter 2, in Tom Brown's School Days:",
"text": "Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles—but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1911, Anthony Hope, chapter 22, in Mrs. Maxon Protests, page 259:",
"text": "Being a soldier's wife isn't all beer and skittles.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012 March 24, John Walsh, “The perils of reviewing restaurants”, in The Independent:",
"text": "His plight reveals a truth that's often obscured by the envy of newspaper readers; that it's not all beer and skittles in restaurant-critic land.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2022 October 5, Nick Brodrick, “Pendolinos: a huge role to play”, in RAIL, number 967, page 41:",
"text": "Such highly intensive deployment left little wriggle room, something with which Dunster is all too familiar. \"It hasn't all been beer and skittles,\" he says dryly.",
"type": "quote"
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"(chiefly UK, idiomatic) Fun times; pleasure and leisure."
],
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"word": "peaches and cream"
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{
"word": "bed of roses"
},
{
"word": "bowl of cherries"
},
{
"word": "sunshine and rainbows"
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"word": "pleasure"
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"synonyms": [
{
"word": "skittles and beer"
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],
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{
"code": "ca",
"lang": "Catalan",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "flors i violes"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "rozengeur en maneschijn"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "hauskanpito"
},
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"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "fun times",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "bon temps"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "jólin"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "no todo el monte es orégano"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "fun times",
"word": "dans på rosor"
}
],
"word": "beer and skittles"
}
Download raw JSONL data for beer and skittles meaning in English (3.5kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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