bring home the bacon

noun

1. the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.
2. Also called white bacon. South Midland and Southern U.S. pork cured in brine; salt pork.

Idioms

3. bring home the bacon,
   1. to provide for material needs; earn a living.
   2. to accomplish a task; be successful or victorious: Our governor went to Washington to appeal for disaster relief and brought home the bacon—$40 million.
4. save one’s bacon, Informal. to allow one to accomplish a desired end; spare one from injury or loss: Quick thinking saved our bacon.

noun

1. Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans. 1561–1626, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist; described the inductive method of reasoning: his works include Essays (1625), The Advancement of Learning (1605), and Novum Organum (1620)
2. Francis . 1909–92, British painter, born in Dublin, noted for his distorted, richly coloured human figures, dogs, and carcasses
3. Roger . ?1214–92, English Franciscan monk, scholar, and scientist: stressed the importance of experiment, demonstrated that air is required for combustion, and first used lenses to correct vision. His Opus Majus (1266) is a compendium of all the sciences of his age

noun

1. meat from the back and sides of a pig, dried, salted, and usually smoked
2. bring home the bacon informal
   1. to achieve success
   2. to provide material support
3. save someone’s bacon British informal to help someone to escape from danger

n.

early 14c., “meat from the back and sides of a pig” (originally either fresh or cured, but especially cured), from Old French bacon, from Proto-Germanic *bakkon “back meat” (cf. Old High German bahho, Old Dutch baken “bacon”). Slang phrase bring home the bacon first recorded 1908; bacon formerly being the staple meat of the working class.

1. English scientist and philosopher who is noted for the wide range of his knowledge and writing on scientific topics. Bacon pioneered the idea that mathematics is fundamental to science and that experimentation is essential to test scientific theories.

1

Earn a living, provide the necessities of life, as in Now that she had a job, Patricia could bring home the bacon.

2

Be successful, accomplish something of value, as in George went to Washington and brought home the bacon—he got the funding we needed. Although the earliest citation for this phrase in the Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1924, the term is widely believed to come from the much older game of catching a greased pig, a popular competition at country fairs in which the winner was awarded the pig.

see bring home the bacon; save one’s bacon.