English · Idiom Candidate

sing for one's supper

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

to perform a task in order to receive payment or reward

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

làm việc để nhận tiền hoặc phần thưởng

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: sing to earn a meal

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The musician had to sing for her supper at the local restaurant

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “sing for one's supper” mean?

to perform a task in order to receive payment or reward Literally: sing to earn a meal

Is “sing for one's supper” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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