Bring home the bacon means to earn the money a family lives on. It describes the person whose income supports the household. The idiom is informal and often a little humorous; in an essay, write be the main earner or support a family instead.
When would you say bring home the bacon?
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bring home the bacon; be the one who brings home the bacon
- When my dad lost his job, my mum brought home the bacon for two years.
- These days, in many families both partners bring home the bacon.
- He works two jobs to bring home the bacon for his wife and three kids.
What changed
First versionIn our family, it's my wife who brings home bacon.
RevisionIn our family, it's my wife who brings home the bacon.
Without the article, the sentence loses its figurative meaning and sounds literal: the wife brings bacon home from the shop. The idiom has a fixed form with the: bring home the bacon. Only the article was added.
Do not confuse it with make ends meet, which means to have just enough money to live on. Bring home the bacon is about who earns the money in a family, while make ends meet is about barely managing: We could barely make ends meet on one salary. Someone can bring home the bacon while the family still struggles to make ends meet.
Your turn
Tom looks after the kids full-time, so his wife, a surgeon, is the one who ___.
Show the answer
brings home the bacon — Tom looks after the children, so the money comes from his wife, the surgeon. That is why the answer is brings home the bacon. Brings up the children means raising the children, which is what Tom does, so the second option contradicts the start of the sentence.
Write about who earns most of the money in your family or in a family you know. Name the person and their job.
In my family, my mum brings home the bacon: she works as an engineer at a large construction company.
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