split the bill

Meaning

This expression means to divide the total cost of a meal equally among the people who ate. It is commonly used in restaurants when dining with friends, family, or colleagues to avoid one person paying for everything. It implies a casual, fair distribution of the cost.

Examples

• Since we all ordered roughly the same amount, let's just split the bill.

  Since we all ordered roughly the same amount, let's just split the bill.

• The waiter asked if we wanted to split the bill or pay together.

  The waiter asked if we wanted to split the bill or pay together.

• It's much easier to split the bill using a mobile payment app these days.

  It's much easier to split the bill using a mobile payment app these days.

• We decided to split the bill four ways to keep things simple.

  We decided to split the bill four ways to keep things simple.

• I don't mind splitting the bill, but you had three expensive cocktails!

  I don't mind splitting the bill, but you had three expensive cocktails!

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Let's divide the bill.

  ✓ Let's split the bill.

  While grammatically understandable, 'divide the bill' is rarely used by native speakers. 'Split the bill' is the standard idiomatic collocation.

• ✗ We split the check on half.

  ✓ We split the check in half.

  If you are dividing the cost between two people, you split it 'in half' or 'fifty-fifty,' not 'on half'.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Instead of one person paying for everything, why don't we ___?

  💡 Divide the cost equally.

  Show answer

  split the bill

• The group agreed to ___ after a great dinner at the Italian restaurant.

  💡 Share the final cost.

  Show answer

  split the bill