As different as chalk and cheese

As different as chalk and cheese is an English metaphor and idiom. We use it when two people – or two things – are so different from each other that they have nothing in common.

Here are some examples of it in use:

• They are as different as chalk and cheese; you wouldn’t know that they are brothers.
• His new record is a completely new style of music. When you compare it with his previous recording you see that they’re as different as chalk and cheese.
• We’re very different from each other – like chalk and cheese – but we get on well together.
• Paris and New York are both great cities, but they are very different from each other – like chalk and cheese.

We use other phrases containing “cheese”. Such as:

“Hard cheese!” is a slang phrase, meaning “bad luck!” People might use it when they don’t really have any sympathy for a person’s bad luck:

• So, he lost a lot of money on gambling. Hard cheese!

“Cheesed off” is another slang phrase, meaning bored or disappointed.

• I’m just cheesed off sitting here all day with nothing to do.
• He was really cheesed off about losing his job.

^{Posted by Graham}