meal ticket

音標發(fā)音

He gave me a meal ticket this noon.
今天中午他給了我一張餐券。
Like most people in his village, growing tobacco provides the family’s meal ticket.
同村裡大多數(shù) 人一樣，李彥博的家裡也是靠種菸草維生。
We were their meal ticket, and people offered a lot of money to Amerasians willing to claim them as mothers and grandparents and siblings.
我們就是他們的飯票，人們出很多錢，希望美亞混血兒能認他們爲母親或祖父母或兄弟姐妹。

American Locker apparently has no patent protection for its meal ticket -- the virtually indestructible plastic postal cluster boxes for housing developments and apartments.
FORBES: Indestructible
And the Orlando Magic, already offering the seventh-lowest ticket prices in the league, are trying to appeal to fans appetites (and wallets) by serving up an all-you-can-eat meal plan for ticket holders.
FORBES: Magazine Article
He also made the political blunder, in the special election, of giving away coupons for a free chicken meal to voters who presented their voting-ticket stubs.
ECONOMIST: California politics

(FOOD) a type of ticket that you can exchange for a meal
(MONEY) someone or something that you use as a way of getting regular amounts of money

If you say that something or someone is a meal ticket, you mean that they provide a person with money or a lifestyle which they would not otherwise have.