know which side one's bread is buttered on

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English

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Verb

know which side one's bread is buttered on (third-person singular simple present knows which side one's bread is buttered on, present participle knowing which side one's bread is buttered on, simple past knew which side one's bread was buttered on or knew which side one's bread is buttered on, past participle known which side one's bread was buttered on or known which side one's bread is buttered on)

  1. (idiomatic) To be aware of where one's interests lie in a situation.
    • 1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter XXIX, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC, page 258:
      They are all stupid when they are not crafty, and very few of them are crafty. The only wise Republicans are the millionnaires and their conscious henchmen. They know which side their bread is buttered on, and they know why.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC, part III , page 576:
      He knows which side his bread is buttered on through in all probability he never realised what it is to be without regular meals.
    • 1955 November, “Mississippi Loses a Minister”, in Clair M. Cook, editor, Economic Justice , volume XXIV, number 3, Columbus, Oh.: National Religion and Labor Foundation, →OCLC, page 5, column 2:
      Many of them must have agreed in their hearts, and applauded his courage secretly. But their foolishness was of the world; they knew which side their bread is buttered on.

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