meal ticket
a ticket that entitles the bearer to meals in a specified restaurant, especially when meals purchased in this manner are offered at reduced rates.
Informal. someone upon whom one is dependent for one's income or livelihood: selfish children who look upon their father only as a meal ticket.
Informal. something, as an object or ability possessed by a person, that is necessary to that person's livelihood: The radio announcer's voice was his meal ticket.
Origin of meal ticket
1Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use meal ticket in a sentence
Gilbert, who keeps a stack of meal tickets in his pocket from the Red Cross, says his house only sustained minor fire damage.
Inside the Brutal Clean-up Efforts in Lac-Megantic | Christine Pelisek | July 16, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThe Scotch Aid Society was keeping him, giving him bed and meal tickets.
The Social Work of the Salvation Army | Edwin Gifford LambHe ate his meals at all hours at a small cheap restaurant, where he bought a bunch of meal tickets each week.
The Harbor | Ernest PooleMeal tickets were issued to the men, and when they went to mess, the tickets were punched.
In the Flash Ranging Service | Edward Alva TruebloodThe superintendent is counting meal tickets distributed by the committee.
Stories and Pictures | Isaac Loeb Peretz
Places were established in Nijni where twenty kitchen meal tickets may be purchased for one ruble.
The Red Cross in Peace and War | Clara Barton
British Dictionary definitions for meal ticket
slang a person, situation, etc, providing a source of livelihood or income
Origin of meal ticket
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with meal ticket
A person or thing depended on as a source of income, as in Magic Johnson was a real meal ticket for his team, or Her interpersonal skills will be her meal ticket when she goes into sales. This metaphoric expression alludes to the earlier practice of handing out tickets that entitle their holder to a meal. [Early 1900s]
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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