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Glite Dictionary
to eat someone's dust

to eat someone's dust

7.4
To be left far behind by someone in a race or game
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : comer el polvo de alguien
  • After the first lap, all the other runners could do was eat her dust.

Examples

  • The new software is so advanced that competitors will eat its dust.

  • Every time they play chess, he makes his brother eat his dust.

  • In the final stretch of the race, the champion left his rivals to eat his dust.

  • The latest smartphone is so fast that all the older models will soon have to eat its dust.

  • During the tournament, she skillfully defeated every opponent, making them eat her dust.

Synonyms

to beat out
vsto eat someone's dust
49 3.8

Defeat others in a contest to win a job or prize

is about being decisively outperformed rather than narrowly defeated
to leave someone in the dust
vsto eat someone's dust
  • Informal
13 6.0

To go far ahead of someone in speed or success

focuses on being left behind rather than on the surpassing action
to outdraw
vsto eat someone's dust
1 6.7

To get more people or money than someone else

is about being left behind in performance rather than drawing larger numbers
to eat someone's lunch
vsto eat someone's dust
  • Informal
1 8.6

To beat someone in business by taking their customers and sales

focuses on being left behind rather than on taking others' opportunities
to leave competitors in the dust
vsto eat someone's dust
  • Informal
4.5

Do much better than other companies or teams

focuses on being decisively outperformed rather than on the act of surpassing
to leave for dust
vsto eat someone's dust
  • Informal
7.5

To beat others easily by being much faster or better

is about being decisively left behind rather than the surpassing action
outclassed
vsto eat someone's dust
6.1

Clearly worse than someone who is much better at the activity

focuses on being left behind rather than on judged inferiority
to score off
vsto eat someone's dust
  • UK
7.4

To get an advantage over someone by doing better than them

focuses on being left behind in performance, not just gaining a point

Antonyms

lead
  • Literature
485 3.2

The amount by which someone is ahead in a race or game

to outperform
30 4.8

Do better than someone or something

How Far Behind

to eat someone's dust
  • Informal
7.4
to lag
24 3.0
to trail
91 2.2

Surface Forms

eat someone's dust infinitive
ate someone's dust past
eaten someone's dust past participle
eating someone's dust present participle
eats someone's dust third person singular

Morphology

eat + someone's + dust

The image of 'eating someone's dust' is a motivated metaphor (literally inhaling dust kicked up by someone ahead), so learners who know 'eat' and 'dust' can likely infer a sense of being left behind or defeated. However, the emphatic sense of being decisively outperformed is idiomatic and not fully predictable from the parts alone, making the expression only partially transparent despite cross-linguistic parallels.

Etymology

Eat someone's dust comes from old races where the leader kicked up a cloud of dust and the person behind looked like they would eat it as they followed. So the phrase now means 'to be left far behind' or 'to lose badly'.