Idiom
beer and skittles
Meaning
Fun times; pleasure and leisure.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Life is not all beer and skittles.”
“Being a professional athlete is not always beer and skittles.”
“Studying for medical exams is definitely not beer and skittles.”
“You should remember that running your own business is hard work and not just beer and skittles.”
“The new parents quickly realized that raising a newborn involves many sleepless nights rather than being all beer and skittles.”
“Even though the vacation looked like beer and skittles on social media, we actually spent most of the time dealing with lost luggage.”
“She warned her younger brother that university life requires discipline and is not just beer and skittles every weekend.”
“While he had expected his new life abroad to be all beer and skittles, he soon discovered the harsh realities of finding steady employment.”
Examples
simple
“Life is not all beer and skittles.”
“Being a professional athlete is not always beer and skittles.”
“Studying for medical exams is definitely not beer and skittles.”
contextual
“You should remember that running your own business is hard work and not just beer and skittles.”
“The new parents quickly realized that raising a newborn involves many sleepless nights rather than being all beer and skittles.”
“Even though the vacation looked like beer and skittles on social media, we actually spent most of the time dealing with lost luggage.”
“She warned her younger brother that university life requires discipline and is not just beer and skittles every weekend.”
complex
“While he had expected his new life abroad to be all beer and skittles, he soon discovered the harsh realities of finding steady employment.”
Origin
Found as early as 1837, in Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, where it appears in the form, “It’s a reg’lar holiday to them—all porter and skittles”. The most common form, as a negative admonition, appears to have been popularized by Thomas Hughes in Tom Brown's School Days (1857, see quotation below).
Key words
Related idioms
- Updated