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

chew the cheese
—(sl.) vomit: The cat’s chewing the cheese on
the living room carpet again.
chicken feed • feed the chicken
chicken feed —(coll.) anything of little importance, especially
a trifling sum of money: That meant only chicken feed for the
proprietary companies and big producers. Cf.: chicken feeder —
(sl.) a poor tipper: The only people I waited on in the restaurant
were chicken feeders.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase bird food—(sl.) health food such as nuts, seeds, etc. (also:
rabbit food): “Instead of a beef hamburger, try a garden-burger.
It’s got nuts and oats and is healthier for you.” “I don’t like
bird food.”
feed the chicken —(sl.) said of a gesture of greeting in which
one person slaps an upraised palm against that of another per-
son: “Hey, great job, feed the chicken!” “Thanks.”
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase feed the chicks—(RAF) carry out air-to-air refueling, by
a large tanker aircraft, of the smaller, fighter aircraft.
chicken soup • duck soup
chicken soup —
1
. a book featuring a collection of short, mo-
tivating essays: Compiled of new and previously published
stories, this Chicken Soup collection brings inspiration for the
holidays. 2. smth. that provides a mysterious but effective way
to solve the problem: “Hey, my Mac [computer] is messed up.
It won’t work.” “Try re-building your desktop, it’s chicken
soup.”
duck soup —(coll.) a task or assignment that does not require
much effort: One very helpful person was Caroline, a techni-
cian for whom the whole computer operation was duck soup.
child of man • man-child
child of man —(liter.) a human being: The elephant lays
down his life to save the child of man, and, consequently, in-
nocence and honesty triumphs over selfishness.
man-child —(pl. men-children) a male child; a boy: Three
years later another little girl was born, and lastly a handsome
little man child was born to this family in 
1
863.