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Synonyms

take the cake

Cultural  

  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.”

take the cake Idioms  

  1. 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.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I’m not the first person to make the point that the music on the series is almost sickeningly on the nose, but this episode took the cake for me.

From Los Angeles Times

Cake and Colbert in bed We take the cake home with us, and in bed we watch Colbert and eat cake and then brush our teeth because there’s been so much cake.

From Los Angeles Times

As far-fetched as all the conspiracy theories have been thus far, this one takes the cake.

From Salon

I didn’t take the cake from the angel’s hand.

From Literature

Kyrgios added that while he might have been accused of being irresponsible or stupid, “this takes the cake.”

From Los Angeles Times

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.