you can't have your cake and eat it too
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
You cannot enjoy two things that are mutually exclusive
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Không thể tận hưởng hai điều trái ngược cùng lúc
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: eating cake after having it
Examples
She can't quit her job and still expect to get paid, you can't have your cake and eat it too
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed on English Wikiquote “English proverbs” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31). 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 “you can't have your cake and eat it too” mean?
You cannot enjoy two things that are mutually exclusive Literally: eating cake after having it
Is “you can't have your cake and eat it too” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.