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Glite Dictionary
to stick to your ribs

to stick to your ribs

1 6.5
To be filling and keep you full for a long time
  • idiom
  • Informal
: sustancioso
  • The restaurant is known for its dishes that stick to your ribs, providing comfort and nourishment.
  • food that sticks to your ribs

But when you eat it, she give you some get some more grits so you fully so it stick to your ribs.

Examples

  • On chilly days, I love to eat meals that stick to your ribs and fill me with warmth.

  • Some of his masculine enterprise might stick to my ribs.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • It'll stick to your ribs.

    The Painted Veil (1934)

  • "You gotta have something that's gonna stick to your ribs.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Stick-to-your-ribs breakfast on a cold morning.

    Blog text (1)

  • After a long day hiking, a hearty stew really sticks to your ribs and keeps your energy up.

Antonyms

light
6 2.8

Not doing or using something in large amounts

How Filling

to stick to your ribs
  • Informal
1 6.5
hearty
13 2.7
satisfying
1 2.2
light
33 2.4

Surface Forms

stick to your ribs infinitive
sticking to your ribs present participle
sticks to your ribs third person singular
stuck to your ribs past
stuck to your ribs past participle

Morphology

stick + to + your + rib

The image of food that 'sticks' to your 'ribs' conveys a metaphor of something that remains with you and provides lasting satisfaction, so a learner who knows the words can often infer the basic idea. However, the mapping from a literal physical sticking to the idiomatic sense 'filling/satisfying' is metaphorical and culturally shaped, so the sense is only partially predictable without prior exposure.

Etymology

The phrase stick to your ribs may come from the image of a heavy meal that seems to stick to your ribs and stay in your body, keeping you full for a long time. That's why it now means 'to be filling and satisfying'.