Word.ws English Dictionary

on a plate

on a plate prepositional phrase: within easy reach; easily achieved.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) Within easy reach; easily achieved.
    • The row started over who will run for parliament in a wealthy rightwing constituency on the left bank in Paris, a safe seat for Sarkozy's ruling UMP. Dati is already a local mayor in the neighbourhood, a job felt to have been handed to her on a plate when she was a Sarkozy favourite. She has since...2011 December 14, Angelique Chrisafis, “Rachida Dati accuses French PM of sexism and elitism”, in Guardian
    • United looked listless, but found the inspiration they were badly lacking in Rashford. First the 21-year-old collected a long ball, bounced through a half-hearted challenge from Maya Yoshida and laid a chance on a plate for Lukaku.2018 December 1, Tom Rostance, “Southampton 2 - 2 Manchester United”, in BBC Sport

Synonyms of on a plate

Questions about on a plate

What does on a plate mean?
On a plate means within easy reach; easily achieved.
What part of speech is on a plate?
On a plate is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on a plate in the dictionary

  1. on a mission
  2. on a need-to-know basis
  3. on a pair
  4. on a par
  5. on a pinch
  6. on a plate
  7. on a platter
  8. on a promise
  9. on a regular basis
  10. on a roll
  11. on a shoestring

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a plate (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-on a plate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “on a plate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_a_plate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.