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Definition of Take the cake
1. Verb. Rank first; used often in a negative context. "He takes the cake for chutzpah!"
Definition of Take the cake
1. Verb. (idiomatic US) To be especially good or outstanding. ¹
2. Verb. (idiomatic US) To be particularly bad, objectionable, or egregious.(jump to be particularly bad or egregious s) ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Lexicographical Neighbors of Take The Cake
Literary usage of Take the cake
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo by Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland (1890)
"To gank the bun, a synonym for "to take the cake," meaning to take the prize, or
to excel in some way. ..."
2. A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and ...by Thomas Bayly Howell by Thomas Bayly Howell (1816)
"Did you observe Mr. Ricketts then offer to take the cake, or to touch Mr.
Chetwynd ?—1 only observed him to take the cake. Uut did you see him touch him ? ..."
3. Celebrated Trials Connected with the Upper Classes of Society, in the by Peter Burke (1851)
"Did you observe Mr. Ricketts then offer to take the cake, or to touch Mr.
Chetwynd ?—I only observed him to take the cake. But did you see him touch him ? ..."
4. An American Glossary by Richard Hopwood Thornton (1912)
"A walking competition among negroes, in which the couple who put on most style "
take the cake." Calabash. A head. Slang. 1837 Mind how you chuck, ..."
5. St. Nicholas by Mary Mapes Dodge (1895)
"I take the cake of soap, and wrap the two-dollar bill around it, as you now see
me doing. There, gentlemen, is the greenback tightly wrapped around the cake ..."
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