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Glite Dictionary
food coma

food coma

1 4.3
A very sleepy feeling after eating a large meal
  • noun
  • /fuːd ˈkoʊmə/
  • Informal
translation icon : coma alimentaria
  • The term "food coma" gets thrown around pretty loosely these days, but I think what I experienced was a full-blown Thanksgiving overthrow.
  • fall into a food coma

And if you like these random, random little TikTok testing, general life testing videos, also let me know to go collapse into a sweet dessert food coma.

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Examples

  • After the big holiday meal, everyone on the couch was in a food coma, barely able to keep their eyes open.

  • Then I got hungry, and I had several meals and lapsed into a food coma.

    Land of the Lost (2009)

  • If they eat enough, they go into a food coma!

    Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

  • I am literally in a food coma right now.

  • Everyone's in a little bit of a post food coma, right?

  • Like that was a food coma multiplied by flight.

    Sidemen

  • - He's in a food coma.

    Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

  • - AJA: I'm in a food coma, Rio.

    Jem and the Holograms (2015)

  • I prefer to lose myself in the dizzy food coma of synthetic cheese and impossible meats.

    Wrath of Man (2021)

  • If you've ever been to, heard of, or suffered a level-4 food coma from a KFC All-You-Can-Eat buffet, let us know in the comments.

    Blog text (16)

Synonyms

turkey coma
vsfood coma
  • Informal
7.2

A feeling of being very sleepy after a large holiday meal, often with turkey

is general extreme sleepiness after large meals not limited to festive occasions

Antonyms

energy
553 1.0

Physical or mental strength that helps you stay active

alertness
14 2.9

A state of being watchful and ready to notice and act on danger or problems

How Sleepy

food coma
  • Informal
1 4.3
drowsiness
6 1.8
sleepiness
8 1.0

Surface Forms

food coma singular
food comas plural

Morphology

food + coma

The compound 'food coma' transparently signals a sleep-related state caused by food: combining 'food' with 'coma' lets learners infer extreme drowsiness after a large meal. However, it is a humorous/metaphorical exaggeration of the medical term 'coma' (not literal unconsciousness), so the meaning is inferable but relies on figurative extension rather than strictly compositional logic.

Etymology

Food coma joins food (a big meal) and coma (a very deep sleep) to make a strong picture. One popular story says that after a large meal the body uses extra energy to digest and you feel very sleepy. So, the phrase means 'feeling very sleepy after eating'.