Idiom
bite of the cherry
Meaning
A chance; an attempt at something, especially something that can or should only be done once.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I only get one bite of the cherry, so I must do it right.”
“The job interview was difficult, but I am glad I finally had my bite of the cherry.”
“He knew this rare audition was his only bite of the cherry, so he prepared for weeks to ensure his performance was perfect.”
Examples
simple
“I only get one bite of the cherry, so I must do it right.”
contextual
“The job interview was difficult, but I am glad I finally had my bite of the cherry.”
complex
“He knew this rare audition was his only bite of the cherry, so he prepared for weeks to ensure his performance was perfect.”
Real-World Examples
“We are now going to be listing some of those bonds in the securities exchange so other investors can have a bite of the cherry," he said.” “A recent decision of the Court of Justice of the European involves a second bite of the cherry -- though the cherry in question is, anomalously, an apple.” Origin
The phrase originates from the observation that a cherry is a small fruit typically consumed in a single motion. It was initially employed to describe the act of attempting to repeat a task that had already reached its conclusion, a second bite being a logistical impossibility for a fruit of such modest dimensions.
By the 1940s, the term cherry had acquired a colloquial association with virginity. The resulting social awkwardness prompted a shift in American usage toward the word apple. While the first recorded instance of the apple variation appeared in 1922, its adoption proved problematic for the internal logic of the idiom. As an apple requires several bites to consume, the original nuance of a singular, unrepeatable opportunity was largely surrendered to the requirements of decorum.
Key words
Related idioms
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