Meaning & use
selling like hotcakes
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Meanings
phrasefixed phraseinformal
Being bought or taken up very quickly and in large numbers.
Grammar: Used after a form of 'be' or 'go': The book is selling like hotcakes. It describes the thing being sold, not the seller.
Patterns
- something is selling like hotcakes
- something sells like hotcakes
- something went like hotcakes
The new phone is selling like hotcakes, and shops keep running out of stock.
Her cookbook sold like hotcakes once it was mentioned on television.
Tickets for the concert are selling like hotcakes, so buy yours today.
phrasefixed phraseinformalfigurative
Being accepted or welcomed very enthusiastically by many people.
Grammar: Used figuratively about ideas or offers, often with 'go': The proposal went like hotcakes.
Patterns
- something goes like hotcakes
- something is going like hotcakes
The free training course went like hotcakes among new staff.
When the company offered flexible hours, the idea went like hotcakes.
Common combinations
- be selling like hotcakes
- The winter coats are selling like hotcakes during this cold spell.
- sell like hotcakes
- Their cupcakes sell like hotcakes every Saturday morning.
- go like hotcakes
- The discount vouchers went like hotcakes.
- tickets are selling like hotcakes
- Tickets are selling like hotcakes for the final match.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flying off the shelves
- Very close in meaning and also informal, but it pictures goods leaving store shelves rather than food being cooked and sold.
- in great demand
- More neutral and formal; it states the fact of high demand without the lively image of hotcakes.
- a big hit
- Describes something popular or successful in general, not specifically how fast it is being bought.
Opposites
Commonly confused: selling like hotcakes or hot cake?
selling like hotcakes vs hot cake
As two words, 'hot cake' is just a pancake served hot; the idiom is always written as one word, 'hotcakes'.
Practice
The new video game is ___ like hotcakes, so stores keep reordering it.
Choose one answer.
'Selling like hotcakes' describes the item being sold quickly, so the -ing form 'selling' fits after 'is'. 'Buying' reverses the roles, 'selling it' adds an object the idiom does not take, and 'sold' would need 'was sold', which does not match the idiom.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “selling like hotcakes”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.