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I know that with verbs it means: To give the impression of

But what about it when it follows a noun?

「いいか、下手にメニューにカレーとかいれてみろ。 あの人がやってきてメニューを食い尽し、デザートとばかりにこれまたケーキ類も全滅させて食い逃げするに決まってるだろ。 そうなったらさ、俺たち全員病院送りじゃないか」

Listen, try and add curry or something else in the menù. That person will come and eat it all, dessert and all she will consume all the cakes and certainly run away. If that were to happen, wouldn't we end up in the hospital?

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It doesn't really matter whether it follows a verb, noun, utterance, or idiom. There is no direct equivalent in English, so you'll have to be creative when trying to write a natural translation.

“As if to say…” or “As though it is…” is close, but not exactly. I recommend you read through many usage examples and absorb the meaning from their contexts, rather than their translations.

  • 雨がやんだので、チャンスとばかりに外に出た
  • 花嫁修業とばかりに料理教室に通った
  • 難しい本を読み切ったので、お祝いとばかりにシャンパンを買って帰った etc.

Read also: What exactly does とばかりに mean?

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  • Could you give me a rough translation of the passage I wrote?
    – Splikie
    Commented Dec 7, 2015 at 20:45
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    Sure, but it will hinder the understanding of とばかりに, because a natural translation for this is so far removed from the original construct. 「デザートとばかりにケーキ類も全滅させた」→ wipe out all the cakes for dessert
    – mirka
    Commented Dec 7, 2015 at 21:29
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    Great answer as usual. Just wanted to add that the grammatical reason that this 「と」 can directly follow any part of speech is none other than the fact that it is the quotative 「と」. If it were another kind of 「と」, it would only be able to follow a certain part of speech (like nouns).
    – user4032
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 0:33
  • @mirka I think I understand it now somehow, even though i think I can't convey it's exact meaning.
    – Splikie
    Commented Dec 8, 2015 at 12:59

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