cakewalk
/ˈkeɪkwɔːk
/noun
1 informal An absurdly or surprisingly easy task: winning the league won’t be a cakewalk for them...
- I don't think anybody knows how long it would take, and I don't think anybody should go on the impression that it's going to be easy or a cakewalk or whatever those phrases are that people use.
- The fact that the guard was a thin man considerably shorter than Walker made the task seem like a cakewalk.
- ‘To get established was not easy, it was not a cakewalk for me,’ she admits.
2 historical A dancing contest among black Americans in which a cake was awarded as a prize.I learned that the cakewalk, a highstepping dance, began on Southern plantations in the 1840s....
- It arose in the slavery period as an accompaniment to plantation dances like the cakewalk.
- Her dance revue, Le Jazz Hot, included vernacular forms like the shimmy, black bottom, shorty george and the cakewalk.
2.1A strutting dance popularized by minstrel shows in the late 19th century.
verb [no object]
1 informal Achieve or win something easily: he cakewalked to a 5-1 triumph...
- ‘I wouldn't want to be cakewalking through games and then get to the playoffs and not have this kind of experience, ‘Donovan said.’
- Tell me again why the Liberals are expected to cakewalk through the coming election?
- Only a few teams have a chance to prevent Arizona from cakewalking through the rest of the season.
2Walk or dance in the manner of a cakewalk: a troupe of clowns cakewalked by...
- The whole Virginia Minstrels chorus joins in while cakewalking in line behind Emmett.
- As the troupe becomes even more successful, their stage set at the Maxwell Theater features a huge Sambo backdrop through whose grinning mouth the minstrels cakewalk onto the stage.