Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Sarah really wanted that job, so she said the signing bonus was cake icing just icing on the cake.
2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved. A tank full of gas in my new car. Your coming home for a few days was the icing on the cake. An additional benefit to something already good. For example, All these letters of congratulation are icing on the cake, or After that beautiful sunrise, the rainbow is just frosting on the cake. This metaphoric expression alludes to the sweet creamy coating used to enhance a cake.
Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. If you describe something as the icing on the cake, you mean that it is an extra good thing that makes a good situation or activity even better.
To ride for one’s country is the ultimate experience. To be in a winning team is the icing on the cake. If it works out that he or she becomes a friend after you have enjoyed a good professional relationship, that is frosting on the cake. You can use the icing on the cake to refer to something which is only a minor part of the main thing you are talking about.
Consumer electronics in Japan is now a 35 billion dollars a year business. This is just the icing on the cake. Japanese electronics companies are now generating an annual 200 billion dollars of sales. Finance Minister Vaclav Klaus has dismissed environmental issues as the frosting on the cake. Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. A North American variant of this phrase is the frosting on the cake . 1996 Independent State education is no longer always free.