English Reference
Idiom idiom

cake crumbs


Hardly anything.

Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.


SIMPLE

My bonus was just cake crumbs.

CONTEXTUAL

After working all weekend, the manager offered us cake crumbs instead of a real raise.

COMPLEX

The workers realized the company's generous offer was merely cake crumbs compared to the massive profits they generated.


Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    cake and gingerbread

    An easy or pleasant task or experience; a piece of cake.

  2. 02

    cake walk

    Something extremely easy.

  3. 03

    cakes and ale

    The simple material pleasures of life.

  4. 04

    eat and leave no crumbs

    Synonym of eat (“to be very good at something; to rule; to rock”).

  5. 05

    eat one's cake and have it too

    Alternative form of have one's cake and eat it too.

  6. 06

    give and take

    [Cockney slang]cake

  7. 07

    have one's cake and eat it too

    To benefit by having two things which are mutually incompatible (such as eating a piece of cake and yet still possessing that piece for future use).

  8. 08

    icing on the cake

    A thing which intensifies the appreciation of something already good, or (ironic) the regretting of something already bad.

Last updated August 10, 2026