cake and wine

noun

A restricted diet of bread and water, imposed as a disciplinary measure.

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Meanings

nouncake and wine (uncountable)
  1. USslanguncountablegovernmentA restricted diet of bread and water, imposed as a disciplinary measure.

    […] and the skipper threw him in the brig for five days on cake and wine (bread and water, in navy slang).

    2011, Stephen Curley, The Ship That Would Not Die
    2 more examples

    After a week of privation on pound cake and white wine (strangely the Navy's slang for solitary confinement on bread and water was "cake and wine") Carlsen received warm nourishment.

    1980, The Compass, volumes 50-52, page 26

    If one was 5 minutes late he got three days bread and water for a first offense. A second time got the culprit 5 days. Insolence and/or insubordination earned one a deck court-martial with 10 days on "cake and wine".

    2009, Chester A. Wright, Black Men and Blue Water, page 222
  2. uncountableUsed other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cake, wine.
Cite this entry
APA

cake and wine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cake%20and%20wine

MLA

“cake and wine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cake%20and%20wine. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cake and wine,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cake%20and%20wine.

Source: cake and wine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.