to eat lead

1 9.9

To be shot at with bullets

idiom
/it lɛd/

Offensive

: comerse plomo

Eat lead, Sheriff!

Examples

Eat lead you man-stealing slut!

Meet the Feebles (1989)
Eat lead!

Tropic Thunder (2008)
Eat lead!

Tropic Thunder (2008)
Eat lead, suckers.

RoboCop 3 (1993)
Eat lead, you no-good villain!
If you think you can get away, then eat lead!
In the game, when you lose, the opponent shouts, 'Eat lead!'

Surface Forms

eat lead infinitive

ate lead past

eaten lead past participle

eating lead present participle

eats lead third person singular

Morphology

eat + lead

The literal meanings of 'eat' (consume) and 'lead' (the metal) do not transparently combine to mean 'be shot at'; understanding this MWE requires cultural/technical knowledge that bullets are (historically) lead and a slangy metaphorical use of 'eat' for 'take/receive' projectiles. This idiomatic, register-specific usage is not predictable from the constituents and would be unfamiliar to an average B1 learner who only knows the words' basic senses.

Etymology

Eat lead paints a strong picture: bullets were often made of lead, so the phrase imagines someone eating the metal when bullets hit them. That's why it means 'to be shot at'.