bring home the bacon

/brɪŋ hoʊm ðə ˈbeɪkən/

Other forms: bringing home the bacon; brought home the bacon; brings home the bacon

To bring home the bacon is to earn a living. You might bring home the bacon by working nights at a warehouse and as a school crossing guard by day.

There are a lot of guesses about the origin of this phrase, some of them going back to twelfth century England and various traditions and sayings involving bacon. However, to bring home the bacon seems to be a much more recent idiom. The mother of American boxer Joe Gans, in a 1906 telegram in which she urged her son to win a difficult match, made the first recorded use of bring home the bacon, encouraging him to do just that.

Definitions of bring home the bacon

1. verb

   supply means of subsistence; earn a living
   “Women nowadays not only take care of the household but also bring home the bacon”

   synonyms: provide

   type of:

   support

   support materially or financially
2. verb

   attain success or reach a desired goal
   synonyms: come through, deliver the goods, succeed, win

   types:

   hit

   hit the intended target or goal

   bring off, carry off, manage, negociate, pull off

   be successful; achieve a goal

   clear, pass

   go unchallenged; be approved

   hit the jackpot, luck out

   succeed by luck

   nail, nail down, peg

   succeed in obtaining a position

   make it, pass

   go successfully through a test or a selection process

   run

   make without a miss

   act, work

   have an effect or outcome; often the one desired or expected

   pan out

   be a success

   accomplish, achieve, attain, reach

   gain with effort

   arrive, get in, go far, make it

   succeed in a big way; get to the top

   score

   get a certain number or letter indicating quality or performance

   get to, make, progress to, reach

   reach a goal, e.g., "make the first team"

   clear

   pass an inspection or receive authorization

   ace, breeze through, nail, pass with flying colors, sail through, sweep through

   succeed at easily

   begin

   achieve or accomplish in the least degree, usually used in the negative

   come to, strike

   attain

   culminate

   reach the highest or most decisive point

   compass

   bring about; accomplish

   average

   achieve or reach on average

   finagle, manage, wangle, wrangle

   achieve something by means of trickery or devious methods