Word.ws English Dictionary

has one's cake and eats it too

has one's cake and eats it too is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 has one's cake and eats it too

What is has one's cake and eats it too the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Has one's cake and eats it too is the third-person singular simple present indicative of have one's cake and eat it too.

Words near has one's cake and eats it too in the dictionary

  1. has one more time
  2. has one's act together
  3. has one's ass handed to one
  4. has one's back up
  5. has one's bread buttered for life
  6. has one's cake and eats it too
  7. has one's day in court
  8. has one's ducks in a row
  9. has one's ears lowered
  10. has one's ears on
  11. has one's ears pinned back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: has one's cake and eats 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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