pat-a-cake



pat-a-cake
same as patty-cake, a term used since 1950 which means not handling cases. From a children's game played by a child clapping hands alone and with another child while chanting a nursery rhyme. From the beginning words of the nursery rhyme:


Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man!
Bake me a cake as fast as you can,
Shape it and prick it, and mark it with B,
And put it in the oven for Baby and me!