meal ticket

Older musicians, such as Jo Jones, Sonny Greer, Sammy Price, Russell Procope, and Earle Warren, who had known Schaap as an eccentric teen-ager now welcomed him as a meal ticket.

He meant to ask for a meal ticket, but the seemingly proper moment never came, and he decided to pay himself that night.

You've always been ace-high with me, and there never will come the day when you can't eat on my meal-ticket.

For he had said frankly that when he received his discharge from the Army he would have to dig up a job to get a meal ticket.

I note by the papers that you have served your bit and are now out again digging around for your own meal ticket.

Now worked around the Army Hotel and received in return his bed and one meal ticket a day.