Meanings
- UKdatedidiomaticpluralplural onlyThe simple material pleasures of life.
To furnish the cakes and ale of the mind, is, we take it, the proper virtue of novels. It is for mental delight and recreation that we resort to them.
1857 May, “[Notices of Books.] Ivors. By the Author of ‘Amy Herbert,’ ‘Cleve Hall,’ &c. In Two Volumes. Second Edition. New York, D. Appleton and Company. 1857.”, in Henry N[orman] Hudson, editor, The American Church Monthly, volume 1, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Edward P. Allen, […], →OCLC, page 389 - UKdatedidiomaticpluralplural onlyLively fun and merrymaking.
Doſt thou thinke becauſe thou art vertuous, there ſhall be no more Cakes and Ale?
c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 261, column 2
Origin
From William Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night (written c. 1601–1602), Act II, scene iii: see the quotation.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Italian rose e fiori
- rose e fiorilively fun and merrymaking
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with cakes and ale
Cite this entry
cakes and ale. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakes%20and%20ale
“cakes and ale.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakes%20and%20ale. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cakes and ale,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cakes%20and%20ale.
Source: cakes and ale on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.