to eat (someone) for breakfast
4
8.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
derrotar fácilmente
- But in the meantime, we're gonna eat the enemy for breakfast, we are gonna eat the enemy for lunch, and we are gonna eat the enemy for dinner!
Examples
-
If I hired you, the guys in this office would eat you for breakfast.
-
Sounds like the kind of guy that Crazy Willy would eat for breakfast.
-
Yeah, I love pressure, I eat it for breakfast.
-
I eat fear for breakfast.
-
I eat losers for breakfast.
-
We're gonna eat those Vettes for breakfast.
-
He will eat you for breakfast.
-
Kick ass, take names and eat Cong for breakfast.
-
As far as I'm concerned, Lyonheart is gonna eat this bozo for breakfast.
-
You may think you're tough, but I eat guys like you for breakfast.
Synonyms
1
8.4
Beat someone easily to show you are much better
1
9.0
To beat someone and gain an advantage over them in competition
1
8.6
To beat someone in business by taking their customers and sales
Antonyms
How Dominant
- NSFW
63
7.5
386
4.7
- Informal
4
8.3
275
2.5
∞
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
eat + (someone) + for + breakfast
The literal words 'eat' and 'breakfast' evoke consumption and a routine, trivial meal, so an English learner might suspect a metaphorical sense of overpowering someone easily. However, the precise sense 'to defeat or dominate someone very easily' is an idiomatic metaphorical extension (similar to 'eat someone alive') and is not strictly predictable from the parts for an average B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Eat someone for breakfast gives a clear picture of a very strong person who could eat an opponent like a simple breakfast. That's why it means to 'defeat' or 'dominate' someone very easily.