meal ticket

American  

noun

1. a ticket that entitles the bearer to meals in a specified restaurant, especially when meals purchased in this manner are offered at reduced rates.

2. Informal. someone upon whom one is dependent for one's income or livelihood.

   selfish children who look upon their father only as a meal ticket.

3. Informal. something, as an object or ability possessed by a person, that is necessary to that person's livelihood.

   The radio announcer's voice was his meal ticket.

---

meal ticket British  

noun

1. slang a person, situation, etc, providing a source of livelihood or income

---

meal ticket Idioms  

1. A person or thing depended on as a source of income, as in Magic Johnson was a real meal ticket for his team, or Her interpersonal skills will be her meal ticket when she goes into sales. This metaphoric expression alludes to the earlier practice of handing out tickets that entitle their holder to a meal. [Early 1900s]

---

Etymology

Origin of meal ticket

An Americanism dating back to 1865–70

Example Sentences

But the place was for sale and his meal ticket was about to run out.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2025

Playing the Fonz has been a meal ticket that has yielded Winkler interesting reactions from unlikely sources.

From New York Times • Oct. 24, 2023

I went back to law school on my way out of my first marriage because I needed a meal ticket.

From Scientific American • Sep. 28, 2023

While the Goolds lost all their money at the roulette tables, they thought they had found a meal ticket in Danish widow Emma Levin in 1907.

From BBC • Jul. 9, 2022

Artemis would not risk causing brain damage to his meal ticket, nor could he afford to reveal the Book as the source of his information.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer