This post discusses a number of idiomatic expressions that refer
literally or figuratively to consuming food and include some form of the word eat.
To say that someone will
eat someone else for breakfast is to convey that the first person will
easily defeat the other in whatever competition or rivalry they are engaged in.
Meanwhile, a dog-eat-dog
environment is a highly competitive one, with a hyperbolic notion that
people within it are so ruthless that they are like animals desperate enough to
kill and eat each other.
Similarly, to say that one person will eat another’s lunch is, on the analogy of the cliché of a child
stealing a classmate’s lunch, to suggest that a competitor or rival will best
someone else decisively.
On a related note, “Eat
one’s young” means to betray someone to whom one has a responsibility.
“Eat your heart out!” is a taunt to someone
noted for an accomplishment, skill, or talent expressing that the speaker has
outperformed the targeted person in that area; the idiom alludes to the notion
that the target will agonize about being outperformed to the extent that it
affects the person’s health—the defeat metaphorically eats away at his or her
heart.
Meanwhile, “Eat me!”
and “Eat my shorts!” are vulgar
taunts, while “Eat my dust!” from
the notion that one will be running or driving faster, leaving the other person
in a cloud of dust of one’s making, is milder to the point of being acceptable
as a lighthearted jab.
To say that one is getting
or having a bite to eat, or to invite someone to join one for a bite to eat (or just a “bite”), suggests that the
food consumed will consist of a snack or a light meal, though in reality it may
turn out to be a full meal. To eat and
run is to dine hurriedly. When one says, “I hate to eat and run!” it’s
generally a jocular apology about doing so. To eat in is simply to dine at home
rather than going to a restaurant.
“Eat like a bird” alludes to how many birds
pick at their food and seem to eat little, while “eat like a pig” invites comparison with the hearty enthusiasm of a
pig when it eats. To eat one’s fill
is to consume food until one is full, and a pregnant woman is said to be “eating for two” when her appetite
increases. To eat someone out of house
and home refers to when a house guest demonstrate one’s healthy appetite by
exhausting the supply of food in the home of one’s host.
To say that one could eat a
horse is to express that one is extremely hungry. (It’s unclear why this
idiom specifies the horse, which in Western civilization has generally not been
considered a source of meat for people except in dire circumstance, rather than
another large animal associated with meat, such as a cow. One clue is that the
expression appears in several sources as “so hungry, [one] could eat a horse
behind the saddle,” alluding to a traveler being so desperate that he would
kill his mount for food.)
When one says that one will
eat one’s hat if something that seems unlikely is true or something that
seems unlikely to happen occurs, the speaker is hyperbolically expressing that
he or she will consume the headgear as punishment for his or her skepticism.
The implication is that the speaker is so confident of the outcome that he or
she believes that there is little chance he or she will have to keep his or her
word and carry out the act.
By the same token, to eat
one’s words is to figuratively ingest them after expressing something that
has been challenged or refuted; the idea is the same as having to take back
one’s words. Eating crow or eating dirt,
similarly, refers to the humiliation of being proven wrong; the notion is of
having to ingest something unpalatable. The idea of eating humble pie is a figurative extension.
When an idea, or an emotion such as guilt, eats away at someone, it is because the person feels as he or she
is being gnawed at, with emotional distress akin to physical harm. By contrast,
to say that something is eating through
something else refers to one substance dissolving another, although it
might also refer to pests such as termites gnawing on wood, and to say that one
is being eaten alive is figurative
and alludes to being swarmed by mosquitoes or biting insects.
To eat high off the hog is to live well and
prosper, from the notion that the best cuts of pork are located on the upper
part of the pig’s body.
To say that one has another person eating out of one’s hand (or the palm of one’s hand) suggests that
the other person has been tamed, as when someone succeeds in getting a wild
animal to eat food in this manner.
“Eat up!” is a friendly admonition
to partake in a meal. “Eat, drink, and
be merry” carries the same sentiment, although the original expression
concluded fatalistically, “for tomorrow we die”—a comment uttered at a feast on
the eve of battle.
When one is told that one looks
good enough to eat, the speaker is comparing one’s attractiveness to the
visual appeal of delicious-looking food. Meanwhile, assuring someone that one,
or another person, “won’t eat you”
is in response to the person assured being apprehensive about approaching or
meeting someone because the other person seems imposing or threatening or the
first person is shy.
“Let them eat cake” was supposedly a callous
response by a member of royalty to a report that peasants were too poor to
afford bread. However, it is wrongly attributed to Marie Antoinette, queen of
France at the time of the French Revolution, who was reportedly generous to the
indigent. A similar remark, referring to the crust of pâté rather than to cake,
was rumored to have been uttered by another French queen more than a hundred
years earlier and is likely the source of the misattributed quote.
To say that someone is mad
enough to chew (or eat) nails suggests hyperbolically that the person is
gnashing his or her teeth out of anger so passionately that he or she could
easily gnaw through metal.
“Real men don’t eat
quiche,”
dating from the trendy popularity of the egg dish during the 1970s, suggests
that the delicacy does not appeal to masculine taste in the way that, say, a
piece of steak would.
To say that a room is so clean, one could eat off the floor hyperbolically concludes that it has
undergone such a painstakingly thorough cleaning that the floor is safe for
placing food on.
“You are what you eat,” originating early in the
nineteenth century but repeated over the years and popularized during the
1960s, suggests the rather obvious notion that one’s diet determines the
condition of one’s body. On a related note, the admonition to “eat your Wheaties” derives from the
reputation of that brand of cereal for being particularly nutritious; one who
wishes to be successful is encouraged to partake of it.
“You can’t have your cake
and eat it, too” means that one cannot simultaneously continue to enjoy the fact
that one possesses something while consuming it or using it up.
A reference to eating
someone’s face has one of two meanings, depending on context. Denoting
anger, it means that someone is so furiously confronting someone else that he
or she is metaphorically devouring the other’s face. By contrast, people
kissing passionately are sometimes said in humor to be eating each other’s faces.
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