Idiom
Bring home the bacon
To bring home the bacon means to earn the money that supports a family or household. It can also mean to succeed or win a prize.
How people use it
The most common sense today is earning a living: "Both parents bring home the bacon in their house." It is informal and a little old-fashioned, often used with a playful or ironic tone. In sports and business it can mean to win or deliver a result: "The team brought home the bacon in the final." It has nothing to do with food, though cartoons and ads love to joke about frying pans.
Examples
- Since Omar started his new job, he's the one who brings home the bacon.
- In our house, my mom and my stepdad both bring home the bacon.
- The rookie pitcher helped bring home the bacon with a perfect final inning.
Where it comes from
No one knows exactly. A real tradition in the English town of Great Dunmow, going back centuries, awarded a side of bacon to married couples who could swear they had not quarreled for a year and a day. Some link the phrase to it, but the money-earning sense is only recorded from the early 1900s in the US, often in sports reports, so a direct connection is unproven.
Check yourself
1. What does it mean to bring home the bacon?
Answer: To earn money for your household. Bring home the bacon most often means earning a living to support a family.
2. What is the second, less common meaning?
Answer: To win or succeed. In sports and business, bringing home the bacon can mean winning a prize or delivering results.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in BACON.