bread and honey
Classic Cockney rhyming slang for money — 'bread and honey' rhymes with 'money', following the same logic as 'plates of meat' (feet) and 'dog and bone' (phone).
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Born ~1850 · no dated citations yetDefinitions
Classic Cockney rhyming slang for money — 'bread and honey' rhymes with 'money', following the same logic as 'plates of meat' (feet) and 'dog and bone' (phone). Like all rhyming slang, the fun is in the indirection: you say the thing that rhymes instead of the thing you mean, and anyone not in the know gets left behind. Bread and honey is one of the most recognisable examples, cropping up in British culture from market stalls to gangster films. Where's the bread? Where's the money.
I'd love to come on holiday but I simply haven't got the bread and honey right now.
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(UK, slang) Money.
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- 72%
Heavy bread is an uncommon American slang term for a large amount of money — significant cash or substantial financial reward. 'Bread' has been used as slang for money in Black American vernacular (from Cockney rhyming slang 'bread and honey' = money, later absorbed into broader usage), and 'heavy' intensifies the quantity. The phrase is rare enough that it reads as slightly dated or hip-hop inflected, used to emphasise both the size and the weight of a financial sum.
- 72%
(slang, uncommon) A large amount of money.
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(slang) Money.
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