Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bite of the cherry

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.94 in modern English

Syllables
bite of the cher-ry
IPA
31
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
2
Syllables
10
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A chance; an attempt at something, especially something that can or should only be done once.

Etymology

A cherry is a small fruit usually eaten in a single bite, and the phrase was originally intended to refer specifically to an attempt to repeat an already-completed action. By the 1940s, cherry had taken on the additional meaning of "virginity" and the phrase was considered embarrassing, and so "apple" replaced "cherry" chiefly in American usage. As an apple is usually eaten in many bites, the additional nuance of "an unrepeatable action" was increasingly lost. The first recorded use of the "apple" form is in 1922.

Inflected Forms

bites of the cherry (plural)

Synonyms

bite at the cherry bite at the apple bite of the apple

Questions

What does bite of the cherry mean?
A chance; an attempt at something, especially something that can or should only be done once.
Where does bite of the cherry come from?
A cherry is a small fruit usually eaten in a single bite, and the phrase was originally intended to refer specifically to an attempt to repeat an already-completed action. By the 1940s, cherry had taken on the additional meaning of "virginity" and the phrase was considered embarrassing, and so "apple" replaced "cherry" chiefly in American usage. As an apple is usually eaten in many bites, the additional nuance of "an unrepeatable action" was increasingly lost. The first recorded use of the "apple" form is in 1922.

How to pronounce bite of the cherry

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