Meaning & use
bowl of cherries
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Meaning
phraseidiominformal
A situation or life that is pleasant and easy; usually used to say the opposite, that something is difficult.
Grammar: Usually follows a negative: life is not a bowl of cherries.
Patterns
- life is not a bowl of cherries
- be a bowl of cherries
Running a restaurant is no bowl of cherries.
Life isn't always a bowl of cherries, but we manage.
Moving to a new country is not exactly a bowl of cherries.
Common combinations
- life is a bowl of cherries
- After the promotion, life was a bowl of cherries.
- not a bowl of cherries
- The job is not a bowl of cherries.
- no bowl of cherries
- Raising twins is no bowl of cherries.
- hardly a bowl of cherries
- Winter on the farm is hardly a bowl of cherries.
Synonyms and how they differ
- a piece of cake
- A piece of cake describes a single task that is easy, while bowl of cherries describes life or a whole situation.
- a walk in the park
- A walk in the park is also about an easy task, and it is more likely to be used in the negative form for effort.
- a bed of roses
- A bed of roses is very close in meaning and also mostly used negatively, but it sounds a little more literary.
- plain sailing
- Plain sailing describes progress that meets no problems, while bowl of cherries stresses pleasantness.
Opposites
Word family
- cherry noun
- a small red fruit
- cherry-picking noun
- choosing only the best items
- cherry on the cake idiom
- a final pleasant extra
Commonly confused: bowl of cherries or bowl of cherries?
bowl of cherries vs bowl of cherries
Do not confuse it with cherry on top, which means a small final extra that makes something good even better.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
No bowl of cherries means something is hard, which fits looking after toddlers. The other sentences use the words but not the idiomatic meaning or grammar.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bowl of cherries”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.