know what side of the bread is buttered

English

Verb

know what side of the bread is buttered (third-person singular simple present knows what side of the bread is buttered, present participle knowing what side of the bread is buttered, simple past knew what side of the bread was buttered or knew what side of the bread is buttered, past participle known what side of the bread was buttered or known what side of the bread is buttered)

  1. Alternative form of know which side one's bread is buttered on.
    • 1961 May 12, “Freeman’s Farm Program: A Socialist Strait Jacket”, in Frank C[leary] Hanighen, editor, Human Events, volume XVIII, number 19, Washington, D.C., →ISSN, →OCLC, section IV, page 300, column 1:
      How many of these “officials” will plump for the New Frontier? Well, they all know what side of the bread is buttered and who butters it.
    • 1991 July, Sydney Omarr, “Sunday, August 23 (Moon in Gemini to Cancer 12:36 p.m.)”, in Sydney Omarr’s Day-by-Day Astrological Guide for Libra, September 23-October 22, 1992, New York, N.Y.: Signet, →ISBN, page 240:
      Know what side of the bread is buttered and that you are doing the right thing even when you would rather just take it easy.
    • 2010, Brenda Jackson, chapter 7, in Hidden Pleasures, New York, N.Y.: Kimani Press, →ISBN, page 96:
      Although he claimed she was supposed to teach him manners, she knew what side of the bread was buttered. To get her mother’s house she had to be his lover for seven days.
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