lead sandwich
- noun
- /lɛd ˈsænwɪtʃ/
- Informal
:
sándwich pesado
- The deli's signature lead sandwich is famous for its enormous size and weight.
Examples
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He joked that finishing the report felt like eating a lead sandwich—surprisingly hard to get through.
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After that massive lead sandwich, I barely made it back to work.
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I ordered a lead sandwich for lunch!
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This lead sandwich is so heavy!
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After that massive lead sandwich, I barely made it back to work.
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He joked that finishing the report felt like eating a lead sandwich—surprisingly hard to get through.
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The deli's signature lead sandwich is famous for its enormous size and weight.
How Filling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is based on a straightforward metaphor: 'lead' evokes heaviness and combined with 'sandwich' yields the idea of a very heavy or filling sandwich, so a B1 learner who knows both words can plausibly infer that sense. However, the figurative extension to describe a burdensome situation is metaphorical and not entirely predictable from the constituents without some exposure, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Lead sandwich comes from imagining a sandwich made of lead, the very heavy metal, so you picture food that 'weighs you down'. That's why people call a huge, filling meal or a difficult task a lead sandwich when it feels 'hard to get through'.