eat the rich
- idiom
- Informal
:
comer a los ricos
- The protestors marched through the city chanting eat the rich as their rallying cry.
Examples
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The phrase eat the rich appeared on banners at the demonstration against government tax breaks for the wealthy.
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Some satirical cartoons use eat the rich to highlight growing economic inequality.
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Let's eat the rich and redistribute their wealth!
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Many young activists are calling to eat the rich.
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At the rally, protestors shouted, 'Let's eat the rich!' to demand fairer economic policies.
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The slogan 'eat the rich' has become popular among critics of income inequality.
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During the protest, many carried signs that said 'eat the rich' to express their frustration with wealth distribution.
Antonyms
How Hostile
Surface Forms
Morphology
eat + the + rich
The literal words 'eat' + 'the' + 'rich' signal hostility toward wealthy people, so a learner who knows the constituents will likely infer a non-literal, antagonistic meaning rather than a literal act of eating. However, the slogan functions as a political/metaphorical call for radical opposition or redistribution of wealth, which requires cultural and pragmatic knowledge beyond constituent meanings and is not fully predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
Eat the rich may come from a strong image used in old protests and sayings: people imagined the poor so hungry and angry they would eat the rich, meaning they would take their money and power. That's why today the phrase is used to 'criticize the wealthy' or call for big changes in how money is shared.