How to Use meat-and-potatoes in a Sentence

meat-and-potatoes

1 of 2 adjective
  • Some want a big old meat-and-potatoes meal, some dream of a sushi omakase extravaganza.
    — ABC News, 17 June 2026
  • Amaya Battle is a meat-and-potatoes basketball player.
    — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 17 Feb. 2026
  • What struck me about the Slayr album is that there were so many meat-and-potatoes rage rap songs, but with an almost hyperpop-level of focus on the melodies.
    — Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 13 Mar. 2026
  • For a front office that routinely overthinks the room, this is dangerously close to a competent, meat-and-potatoes haul.
    — Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 22 Apr. 2026
  • And why shouldn’t the meat-and-potatoes Academy voters enjoy a little old-fashioned star vehicle as a treat?
    — Nate Jones, Vulture, 31 Jan. 2026
  • Wahlberg was a 20-something bad boy who took a more meat-and-potatoes (or Peter Berg and Peter Berg) route to popular success.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
  • When working in that vein, Barnett’s journeys through self-doubt are well-matched with the stomping, meat-and-potatoes indie-rock production that Burke Reid and Dan Luscombe brought to her first two albums.
    — Ethan Beck, Pitchfork, 27 Mar. 2026
  • That’s not a bad dramatic backdrop for a documentary, and when Soderbergh sticks to the classic meat-and-potatoes of doc construction—voiceover and archival material—The Last Interview is fine.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 16 May 2026

meat and potatoes

2 of 2 noun
  • That’s meat and potatoes y’all.
    — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 21 Aug. 2025
  • That was the meat and potatoes for so many people to spring from, to learn from, where their next job came from.
    — Lynette Rice, Deadline, 7 Aug. 2025
  • The bistro's staying power might have something to do with its ability to please the young and the old – the gourmet crowd and the fussy meat and potatoes stalwarts.
    — Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer, 14 Aug. 2025
  • While the meat and potatoes of this outfit—a baggy T-shirt and button-down with khakis—are total dad staples, the mix feels cool and purposeful.
    — Alison Syrett Cleary, InStyle, 18 Jan. 2026
  • Cooked meat and potatoes were found in a cold holding unit at 65 to 70 degrees for around three hours without temperatures being measured through the process.
    — Paige Moore, AZCentral.com, 25 Mar. 2026
  • Save as a collection on MyRecipes To some, the definition of a comforting dinner is meat and potatoes.
    — Josh Miller, Southern Living, 7 Nov. 2025
  • Viewed as a playmaker in the middle of the park, Boudri is expected to add flair and creativity to a midfield group that was more meat and potatoes in 2025.
    — Josh Gross, Daily News, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Her busts of wealthy abolitionists and famous men, such as Lincoln and Longfellow, come across as the meat and potatoes of a commercial artistic practice, but her group sculptures are tantalizingly tricky.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
  • The premise that Valerie must keep that AI secret from the rest of her cast, and from the industry as a whole, gives this season a solid comedic game and allows for the kind of misunderstandings and humiliations that are the meat and potatoes of classic situation comedy.
    — Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 20 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'meat-and-potatoes.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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