to eat my lunch
1
9.0
- idiom
- Informal
:
superar
- Come on over, Mr. Peterbuilt, and I'll eat your lunch, 10-4.
Examples
-
I was just eating my lunch, sir.
-
If you don't study hard, she will eat your lunch in the competition.
-
In the last match, the underdogs really ate our lunch and shocked everyone with their victory.
-
Be careful in negotiations; they might eat your lunch if you don't understand their tactics.
Synonyms
4
8.3
Defeat someone easily without much effort
1
8.4
Beat someone easily to show you are much better
1
8.6
To beat someone in business by taking their customers and sales
Antonyms
How Dominant
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal image of 'eat' + 'my' + 'lunch' (consuming someone's midday meal) provides a plausible metaphorical basis for 'taking away someone's advantage', so there is some predictability from the constituents. However, the competitive/idiomatic sense ('defeat, outdo, or take advantage of someone') is informal and not fully derivable by an average B1 learner without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The idiom eat my lunch may come from the image of someone stealing your packed lunch at school or work. If someone eats your lunch, they take what you have and leave you with nothing, so the phrase now means 'to beat, outdo, or take advantage of' someone.