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View synonyms for take the cake

take the cake

  1. To be the most outstanding; sometimes used in a derogatory sense: “When it comes to eating like a pig, Gordy really takes the cake.”


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Idioms and Phrases

Be the most outstanding in some respect, either the best or the worst. For example, That advertising slogan really took the cake , or What a mess they made of the concert—that takes the cake! This expression alludes to a contest called a cakewalk , in which a cake is the prize. Its figurative use, for something either excellent or outrageously bad, dates from the 1880s.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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