Word Wind relates in an other thread:He says the family was so big that all he got from the chicken were the bones.edited at WW request-- --taken out of the context of the paragraph, the sentence wasn't quite right..

What a wonderful image..(sad, too)

in our house, if some one dug in and ate, and ate, and cleaned the plate, my dad-- would look at it, and comment, Whoee, you know, there used to be flower on that plate before you started!(he often used it on us kids as we scraped up the last drops of icecream from a bowl, too!)

It was a rare day when we didn't have some left overs, and we alway had an open door policy-- we kids could invite friends over for dinner, and--if we were worried about a friend, who we felt was eating enough, we would regularly invite them.

every once in a while dad's comment would cause some embaressment, but not for long, because we wouldn't let it, and every once in while some one wouldn't get the joke.

we've done some thread about regional idioms, but i don't thing we have exhausted the supply.

what are your family or local idioms for being hungry or well fed?

Sometimes gluttons need special treatment. In Basic Training we were served family style, meaning platters were brought, and passed around. One fat slob from Brooklyn thought it a big joke to take all the food on the platter, so that a mountaineer lad from West Virginia got none. Until the West Virginian with his fork pinned the Brooklyn slob's right hand to the table. How the slob blubbered. C.O. gave him no sympathy.

Gosh, Helen, I wish I could edit out a "that" up there!

Here's one:

Jack Sprat could eat no fat (low-cholesterol diet)
His wife could eat not lean (Atkins diet),
And so they _________________ (can't rememeber)
And licked their platters clean (disgusting in polite company, methinks)

Belly regards,
DubDub

editing done, and isn't it:
jack sprat could eat no fat
his wife could eat no lean
and so, betwixt them both,
they licked the platter clean!

but don't trust me, as a child i was taught,
Peter, Peter pumkin eater,
had a wife and couldn't keep her
had another, and couldn't love 'er
so up the chimney he did shove 'er!
Divorce-- nursery rhyme style!

and my version of old mother hubard-- very adult!
even I'm a little tea pot.. has an unbowlerize version.

You know when you have a craving for something. You're not hungry particularly, but there is something that is constantly on you mind and you'll just keel over and die if you don't eat it this very minute...well we have an expression for that...

a craving for vinagre chips as an example...

I would eat vinagre chips on a pig's back.

Meaning you crave it so much that even if they were on a pigs back you'd eat them anyway.

The one who ate the most at dinner was often labeled a garbage 'scout/cow/scow'? I really don't remember what the intended word was, but I believe it had some roots in "the service" (USN).

ok-- were off food and on to garbage..
a scow is a flat bottomed boat.. (think of a barge) and it is pushed by a tug boat. (but it used to be poled..)
and while a scow can carry sand or coal, or any such thing, it somehow got associated with garbage. so you have barges full of commodeties, but scows full of garbage..

meanwhile the mess hall, is just a contraction of comestibles. --crossing threads, my favorite food? anything comestible!

A young woman fom the inner city who worked for me, speaking of a very large meal, used to say, "We ate like a butcher's dog."

what are your family or local idioms for being hungry or well fed?

In my family those with a hearty appetite (most of us, most of the time!) were always described as having hollow legs.

having hollow legs

yes, ditto here; and another idiom I used to hear around me in Kent was "He's so hungry his belly thinks his throat's been cut!"

"He's so hungry his belly thinks his throat's been cut!"

In oh-so-refined Yorkshire that would be stomach, if you don't mind!

A young woman fom the inner city who worked for me, speaking of a very large meal, used to say, "We ate like a butcher's dog."

Interesting. There's an expression used in Zild which goes "he was off like a robber's dog". Wonder if there's any linkage?

> hollow leg

I thought, "He has a hollow leg," was a euphemism for "He can really hold his beer."

I thought, "He has a hollow leg," was a euphemism for "He can really hold his beer."

No, in my family, "having a hollow leg" means you can "eat like a horse".

Maybe it depends on whether your family consists of heavy eaters or heavy drinkers??? (how do you make a wink?)

A regional pronunciation of scoffed, perhaps? Though come to think of it the link between eating and mockery is none too obvious either.

Bingley

Here's a good Aussie one -

I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse and chase the rider.

alexis

having hollow legs.

My mum used to say my brother was a "bottomless pit", and we all used to say "full as a goog" (goog meaning egg, googy egg ...wonder where that one came from? Wow isn't it interesting, the more you learn, the more you figure out that there's more to learn). That's why I love it here...