more sauce than meat
- idiom
- Informal
:
más apariencia que sustancia
- When reviewing his proposal, the board felt it was more sauce than meat and asked for more concrete details.
Examples
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Her speech had more sauce than meat, impressing the crowd but offering few real solutions.
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The movie was entertaining, but honestly, it was more sauce than meat.
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This presentation has more sauce than meat!
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The report was just more sauce than meat.
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Her presentation had more sauce than meat, captivating the audience but lacking in meaningful information.
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Despite its flashy visuals, the advertisement was more sauce than meat, providing little about the actual product.
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During the meeting, the consultant's ideas seemed more sauce than meat, focusing on style rather than practical applications.
Synonyms
1
9.6
A thing that looks exciting but has no real value
Not giving much detail or careful thought
Antonyms
How Substantial
394
5.0
327
3.3
- Informal
94
5.6
121
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression uses a culinary metaphor contrasting 'sauce' (ornamentation/flavour) with 'meat' (substance/core), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer it means more show than substance. However, this interpretation depends on a figurative mapping (sauce = decoration, meat = gist) and some pragmatic/cultural knowledge, so the meaning is not fully predictable from the parts.
Etymology
The phrase more sauce than meat gives a clear image: a dish with lots of sauce but very little meat. That image explains why it means 'more show than real content'.