See know which side of one's bread is buttered in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
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"form": "knows which side of one's bread is buttered",
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},
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"form": "knowing which side of one's bread is buttered",
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"name": "en-verb"
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"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
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{
"word": "know which side one's bread is buttered on"
}
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"ref": "1906 December 8, San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser, volume LXXII, number 23, San Francisco, Calif.: Frederick Marriott, →OCLC, page 1, column 2:",
"text": "The crowd that turned out to welcome Schmitz shows that every one of them knew which side of his bread is buttered and who furnishes their butter.",
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"ref": "1937 February 19, “Are the Three R’s, Readin’, Ritin’, and ’Rithmetic to You, or Just 3 R’s?”, in Katherine Crofts, editor, The Northerner, volume X, number 25, Fort Wayne, Ind.: North Side High School, →OCLC, page 2, column 1:",
"text": "Most of you have no doubt heard a person described as “not knowing which side of his bread is buttered.” Well, I’m sorry to say that there are some of that species running around loose in our corridors. They don’t take advantage of the opportunity offered them in the finest education found anywhere in the world.",
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"ref": "2007 June 28, W. W. G. Hale, chapter 12, in Dance with the Devil: The AIDS Conspiracy, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 128:",
"text": "Crenshaw forged a personality based on staying in the middle, and always with an exit strategy. It is said that his secret agenda is to run for Mayor, but he also knew which side of his bread is buttered.",
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"Alternative form of know which side one's bread is buttered on."
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"text": "Most of you have no doubt heard a person described as “not knowing which side of his bread is buttered.” Well, I’m sorry to say that there are some of that species running around loose in our corridors. They don’t take advantage of the opportunity offered them in the finest education found anywhere in the world.",
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163,
203
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],
"ref": "2007 June 28, W. W. G. Hale, chapter 12, in Dance with the Devil: The AIDS Conspiracy, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 128:",
"text": "Crenshaw forged a personality based on staying in the middle, and always with an exit strategy. It is said that his secret agenda is to run for Mayor, but he also knew which side of his bread is buttered.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Alternative form of know which side one's bread is buttered on."
],
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]
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],
"word": "know which side of one's bread is buttered"
}
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-08-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-08-02 using wiktextract (8b3c49c and 3c020d2). 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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