Meaning & use
just desserts
Last updated
Meaning
nounplural
The fair result someone deserves for their actions, most often a punishment for bad behavior.
Grammar: Always plural and used in the phrase get one's just desserts.
Patterns
- get your just desserts
- receive someone's just desserts
The cheat got his just desserts when the teacher saw his notes.
After years of lying, she finally got her just desserts.
Many people felt the company received its just desserts when sales fell.
Common combinations
- get your just desserts
- The thief got his just desserts when the police arrived.
- receive their just desserts
- The villains receive their just desserts in the final scene.
- deserve your just desserts
- Anyone who cheats deserves their just desserts.
- one's just desserts
- The bully finally met his just desserts.
- serve just desserts
- The judge served the fraudster his just desserts.
Synonyms and how they differ
- comeuppance
- Comeuppance is more informal and almost always means a deserved punishment, while just desserts can also include a fair reward.
- retribution
- Retribution is a stronger, formal word for punishment given in return for wrongdoing, and sounds heavier than just desserts.
- what's coming to them
- What's coming to them is an informal expression with the same sense, and it fits casual speech better than just desserts.
- due reward
- Due reward leans toward positive outcomes, whereas just desserts is most often used for negative ones.
Opposites
Word family
- deserve verb
- to earn by actions
- deserved adjective
- earned or fair
- deservedly adverb
- in a way that is earned
- desert noun
- what someone deserves, in the plural deserts
Commonly confused: just desserts or just deserts? just desserts or desserts?
just desserts vs just deserts
Just deserts is the older and more traditional spelling of the same idiom, and deserts is pronounced like dessert, not like the sandy desert.
just desserts vs desserts
Desserts are sweet dishes served after a meal, which is unrelated to the idiom except by sound.
Practice
What does it mean if a cheater gets his just desserts?
Choose one answer.
Just desserts means what someone deserves, usually punishment for bad behavior, so a cheater being caught fits. The sweet-dish reading is a literal misunderstanding of the sound.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “just desserts”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.