bacon

[ bey-kuh n ]
/ ˈbeɪ kən /

noun

the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.
Also called white bacon. South Midland and Southern U.S. pork cured in brine; salt pork.

Idioms for bacon

    bring home the bacon,
    1. to provide for material needs; earn a living.
    2. to accomplish a task; be successful or victorious: Our governor went to Washington to appeal for disaster relief and brought home the bacon—$40 million.
    save one's bacon, Informal. to allow one to accomplish a desired end; spare one from injury or loss: Quick thinking saved our bacon.

Origin of bacon

1300–50; Middle English bacoun < Anglo-French; Old French bacon < Germanic *bakōn- (Old High German bacho back, ham, bacon) derivative of *baka- back1; compare Middle Dutch bake bacon

British Dictionary definitions for save one's bacon (1 of 2)

Bacon
/ (ˈbeɪkən) /

noun

Francis, Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans. 1561–1626, English philosopher, statesman, and essayist; described the inductive method of reasoning: his works include Essays (1625), The Advancement of Learning (1605), and Novum Organum (1620)
Francis . 1909–92, British painter, born in Dublin, noted for his distorted, richly coloured human figures, dogs, and carcasses
Roger . ?1214–92, English Franciscan monk, scholar, and scientist: stressed the importance of experiment, demonstrated that air is required for combustion, and first used lenses to correct vision. His Opus Majus (1266) is a compendium of all the sciences of his age

British Dictionary definitions for save one's bacon (2 of 2)

bacon
/ (ˈbeɪkən) /

noun

meat from the back and sides of a pig, dried, salted, and usually smoked
bring home the bacon informal
  1. to achieve success
  2. to provide material support
save someone's bacon British informal to help someone to escape from danger

Word Origin for bacon

C12: from Old French bacon, from Old High German bahho; related to Old Saxon baco; see back 1

Scientific definitions for save one's bacon

Bacon
[ bākən ]
Roger 1214?-1292

English scientist and philosopher who is noted for the wide range of his knowledge and writing on scientific topics. Bacon pioneered the idea that mathematics is fundamental to science and that experimentation is essential to test scientific theories.

Biography

Roger Bacon was something of a Renaissance man before there was a Renaissance. Over the course of his long life, his energetic research would lead him to study everything from languages to mathematics to optics. He is most remembered for his insistence on the importance of pursuing fruitful lines of scientific research through experimentation. His writings describe countless experiments; while the majority were probably never performed by him, the profusion alone of experimental ideas is nothing short of astounding. His own laboratory work dealt primarily with alchemy, optics, and mechanics. He was among the first to apply geometric and mathematical principles to problems in optics and the behavior of light, allowing him to make important observations on reflection and refraction. His interest in mechanics led him to describe flying machines and other devices that had not yet been invented. He was the first person in the West to come up with a recipe for gunpowder, and he suggested reforms to the calendar, which would ultimately be implemented hundreds of years later. His novel ways of pursuing knowledge were sometimes viewed with suspicion, resulting at one time in imprisonment; but he bravely resisted all strictures on his intellectual life, even when that meant having to write and work in secret.

Idioms and Phrases with save one's bacon (1 of 2)

save one's bacon

Also, save one's neck or skin. Rescue one from a difficult situation or harm, as in I was having a hard time changing the flat tire but along came Bud, who saved my bacon, or The boat capsized in icy waters, but the life preservers saved our skins. The allusion in the first term is no longer clear. It may simply be a comical way of referring to one's body or one's life. At the time it was first recorded, in 1654, bacon was a prized commodity, so perhaps saving one's bacon was tantamount to keeping something precious. Both variants allude to saving one's life, the one with skin dating from the early 1500s, and with neck, alluding to beheading, from the late 1600s.

Idioms and Phrases with save one's bacon (2 of 2)

bacon

see bring home the bacon; save one's bacon.