A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

pick up stakes • raise the stakes
pick up stakes —(also: pull up stakes) leave one’s home, etc.
and move on to another place: “I’m assuming you’re in a posi-
tion to pick up stakes in a hurry.” “As long as it will take to
pack two bags.”
raise the stakes —(Gambling ) lay a higher stake than one’s
opponent: You can bet against that particular player, contin-
ually raising the stakes, until all the other players are “raised
out.”
piece of cake • pieces of the same cake
piece of cake —said of smth. done easily, with little effort:
Cycling in the hills was a piece of cake. It was the cobblestone
streets that finally wore us out.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase slice of the cake—(also: slice of the pie) used of assets,
profits, etc. to be apportioned or shared out: German labor may
be about to demand a larger slice of the economic recovery
cake.
pieces of the same cake —said of things that have the same
characteristics or qualities: Both physical and psychological
violation or bullying would be pieces of the same cake.
piece of work • work piece
piece of work —
1
. a product of work: They drove over the
Golden Gate Bridge … and she was enchanted. “What a hand-
some piece of work, isn’t it, Luke?” 2. a difficult task or busi-
ness: How do you expect to get along when it’s such a piece
of work to make you shake hands? 3. (coll.) a commotion; a
noisy display: What are you making all this piece of work for?
4. (coll., in the phrase “a nasty piece of work”) an unpleasant
person: He was a nasty piece of work all right. A real black-
mailer.
work piece —a thing worked on with a machine or tool:
Place work piece in a vice or on a flat surface whenever pos-
sible.