soup sandwich
Someone or something that is disorganized, incompetent, fundamentally flawed or unfinished.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“This project is a total soup sandwich.”
“The new office software is a complete soup sandwich, and nobody knows how to use it.”
“The entire logistics operation became a soup sandwich after the manager resigned without leaving any instructions for the team.”
An expression of military origin, soup sandwich evokes the image of soup being poured over bread. The term relies upon the inherent structural failure of such an arrangement to denote something poorly executed or otherwise lacking in basic competence.
- 01
air sandwich
A strategy that has high-level direction and low-level operations, but little in the middle.
- 02
bite of the reality sandwich
A wake-up call, a reality check.
- 03
duck soup
Something which is easy; a piece of cake.
- 04
few sandwiches short of a picnic
Exhibiting disquiet or unsoundness of mind; not sane; mad.
- 05
indict a ham sandwich
Of a grand jury: to charge a person with a crime, despite a perceived lack of evidence.
- 06
loop the loop
[Cockney slang]soup
- 07
shit sandwich
Something highly undesirable that is rendered more acceptable or palatable by the addition of more tolerable or agreeable components.
Last updated August 10, 2026