butter (one's) bread on both sides
butter (one's) bread on both sides
1. To benefit or profit from two or more separate and often contradictory or incompatible things or sources. The CEO buttered her bread on both sides, secretly investing in oil companies while publicly backing green energy initiatives to gain popular support.
2. To live comfortably, especially wastefully or in lavish, indulgent excess. The duke was accused of buttering his bread on both sides, adorning every inch of his home in gold and jewels and holding feasts far too large for the people who attended them.
See also: both, bread, butter, on, side
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
- crush it
- catch a tiger by the tail
- the blame for (something)
- be in the right spot at the right time
- cook the books
- cook the accounts
- chain of command
- be no respecter of persons
- be half the battle (won)
- a/the fish rots from the head down