eat one's cake and have it too
eat one's cake and have it too is the alternative form of have one's cake and eat it too.
Meaning of have one's cake and eat it too
Verb
have one's cake and eat it too (third-person singular simple present has one's cake and eats it too, present participle having one's cake and eating it too, simple past had one's cake and ate it too, past participle had one's cake and eaten it too)
- To benefit by having two things which are mutually incompatible (such as eating a piece of cake and yet still possessing that piece for future use).
- It's not possible to get your savings and keep the piggy bank intact. You can't have your cake and eat it too!
Forms of eat one's cake and have it too
| third-person singular present | eats one's cake and has it too |
|---|---|
| present participle | eating one's cake and having it too |
| past | ate one's cake and had it too |
| past participle | eaten one's cake and had it too |
Questions about eat one's cake and have it too
- What is eat one's cake and have it too the alternative form of?
- Eat one's cake and have it too is the alternative form of have one's cake and eat it too.
Words near eat one's cake and have it too in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: eat one's cake and have it too (page history and authors); have one's cake and eat it too (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-eat one's cake and have it too.ogg.
Cite this entry: “eat one's cake and have it too.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/eat_one%27s_cake_and_have_it_too. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.