meat and potatoes

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noun (used with a singular or plural verb)Informal.

the essential or basic part: Community service is the meat and potatoes of this program.

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IS and ARE are both forms of which verb?

have

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Origin of meat and potatoes

Probably earlier than 1950–55

Words nearby meat and potatoes

measuring spoon, measuringworm, meat, meatal, meat and drink to one, meat and potatoes, meat ax, meataxe, meatball, Meath, meathead

Other definitions for meat and potatoes (2 of 2)

meat-and-potatoes

or meat-and-po·ta·to

[ meet-n-puh-tey-tohz, -tuhz ]

/ ˈmit n pəˈteɪ toʊz, -təz /

adjective Informal.

fundamental; down-to-earth; basic: What are the meat-and-potatoes issues of the election?

Origin of meat-and-potatoes

First recorded in 1945–50

How to use meat and potatoes in a sentence

As an example of good science-and-society policymaking, the history of fluoride may be more of a cautionary tale.
Anti-Fluoriders Are The OG Anti-Vaxxers|Michael Schulson|July 27, 2016|DAILY BEAST
As this list shows, punishments typically run to a short-ish jail sentence and/or a moderately hefty fine.
In Defense of Blasphemy|Michael Tomasky|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The smell of grilled meat mixes with the exotic wafts of cinnamon tea served with a mush of sweet brown dessert.
The Photographer Who Gave Up Manhattan for Marrakech|Liza Foreman|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Yes, Byrd—dead four-and-a-half years now—was a Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan.
Steve Scalise and the Right’s Ridiculous Racial Blame Game|Michael Tomasky|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST

Limbaugh makes comments like this because his right-wing fans require a non–stop diet of race-baiting red meat.
Rush Limbaugh’s Fear of a Black James Bond|Dean Obeidallah|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The sailors sometimes use it to fry their meat, for want of butter, and find it agreeable enough.
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
She also practises etching, pen-and-ink drawing, as well as crayon and water-color sketching.
Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D.|Clara Erskine Clement
We had new potatoes for dinner, boiled with their skins on, and Liszt threw one at me, and I caught it.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
The camp grew still, except for the rough and ready cook pottering about the fire, boiling buffalo-meat and mixing biscuit-dough.
Raw Gold|Bertrand W. Sinclair
No law of that country must exceed in words the number of letters in their alphabet, which consists only in two-and-twenty.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift

Other Idioms and Phrases with meat and potatoes

meat and potatoes

The fundamental part or parts of something, as in This paragraph is the meat and potatoes of the contract. This metaphoric term transfers what some regard as basic fare to the basics of an issue. [Mid-1900s]

meat and potatoes

Origin of meat and potatoes

Words nearby meat and potatoes

Other definitions for meat and potatoes (2 of 2)

or meat-and-po·ta·to

Origin of meat-and-potatoes

Words related to meat and potatoes

How to use meat and potatoes in a sentence

Other Idioms and Phrases with meat and potatoes