Word.ws English Dictionary

had one's cake and eaten it too

had one's cake and eaten it too is the simple past and past participle 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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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!

Questions about had one's cake and eaten it too

What is had one's cake and eaten it too the simple past and past participle of?
Had one's cake and eaten it too is the simple past and past participle of have one's cake and eat it too.

Words near had one's cake and eaten it too in the dictionary

  1. had one's act together
  2. had one's ass handed to one
  3. had one's back up
  4. had one's bread buttered for life
  5. had one's cake and ate it too
  6. had one's cake and eaten it too
  7. had one's ducks in a row
  8. had one's ears lowered
  9. had one's ears on
  10. had one's ears pinned back
  11. had one's eye on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had one's cake and eaten 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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