To chew the fat
Meaning: To chat idly and at length.
Language: English
Literally: To chew the fat
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Sailors and farmhands once gnawed tough salted fat during slow, talkative hours; the leisurely chewing matched the leisurely talk.
Equivalents in other languages
- Turkish: Havadan sudan konuşmak — literally: To talk of weather and water
- Afrikaans: Koeitjies en kalfies — literally: Little cows and calves
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Eine Extrawurst verlangen — To expect special treatment.
- Importar un pepino — To not care in the slightest.
- Avere le mani in pasta — To be deeply involved in something.
- お茶を濁す (ocha o nigosu) — To dodge a question with a vague, evasive answer.
- Encher linguiça — To pad something out with filler to take up space or time.
- Met de neus in de boter vallen — To arrive at exactly the right, lucky moment.
More English idioms
- By the skin of your teeth — By the narrowest possible margin.
- To rain on someone's parade — To spoil someone's plans or happy moment.
- To have a chip on your shoulder — To harbor a grudge or a defensive sense of grievance.
- To cost an arm and a leg — To be extremely expensive.
- To burn the midnight oil — To work late into the night.
- Once in a blue moon — Very rarely.
From our proverbs
- Absence cools moderate passions, and inflames violent ones. — Distance fades mild affections but makes intense ones burn all the hotter.
- The absent are always at fault. — Those not present to defend themselves get the blame.
- Who hath aching teeth, hath ill tenants. — Persistent pains are like bad tenants — troublesome, unwelcome, and hard to evict.