Word.ws English Dictionary

taking the biscuit

taking the biscuit is the present participle and gerund of take the biscuit.

Meaning of take the biscuit

Verb

take the biscuit (third-person singular simple present takes the biscuit, present participle taking the biscuit, simple past took the biscuit, past participle taken the biscuit)

  1. (UK, idiomatic) To be particularly bad, objectionable, or egregious.
    • I've seen bad grammar, but this takes the biscuit.
    Synonyms:
    beat everything, that's the limit, take the cake, beat all

Questions about taking the biscuit

What is taking the biscuit the present participle and gerund of?
Taking the biscuit is the present participle and gerund of take the biscuit.

Words near taking the biscuit in the dictionary

  1. taking stock
  2. taking ten
  3. taking the bait
  4. taking the ball and running with it
  5. taking the bench
  6. taking the biscuit
  7. taking the bitter with the sweet
  8. taking the bread out of someone's mouth
  9. taking the Browns to the Super Bowl
  10. taking the bull by the horns
  11. taking the cake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking the biscuit (page history and authors); take the biscuit (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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Cite this entry: “taking the biscuit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/taking_the_biscuit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.