don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs
- don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs
A caution against offering advice to someone wiser and more experienced than oneself. The metaphorical phrase to teach one’s grandmother (to suck eggs) is also found.
1707 J. STEVENS tr. Quevedo’s Comical Works IV. 403 You would have me teach my Grandame to suck Eggs.
1738 SWIFT Polite Conversation i. 57 ‘I’ll mend it, Miss.’.. ‘You mend it! go, Teach your Grannam to suck Eggs.’
1882 BLACKMORE Christowell II. iii. A..twinkle, which might have been interpreted—‘instruct your grandfather in the suction of gallinaceous products’.
1967 RIDOUT & WITTING English Proverbs Explained 48 Don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs.
2000 S. BOOTH Black Dog xxvii. 433 Hitchens was really warming up now. ‘Teaching your grandmother to suck eggs’ was an expression that sprang to the DCI’s mind.
Proverbs new dictionary.
Look at other dictionaries:
teach your grandmother to suck eggs — When people say don t teach your grandmother to suck eggs , they mean that people shouldn t try to teach someone who has experience or is an expert in that area … The small dictionary of idiomes
teach your grandmother to suck eggs — When people say don t teach your grandmother to suck eggs , they mean that people shouldn t try to teach someone who has experience or is an expert in that area. (Dorking School Dictionary) … English Idioms & idiomatic expressions
don't teach your grandmother how to suck eggs — do not tell me what I know, do not say what is obvious You, a history major, telling me, a war veteran, about war? Don t teach your grandmother how to suck eggs! … English idioms
teach — see you can’t teach an old dog new tricks don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs he who can, does; he who cannot, teaches … Proverbs new dictionary
suck — see don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs … Proverbs new dictionary
grandmother — see don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs … Proverbs new dictionary
teach — /ti:tS/ past tense and past participle taught verb 1 SCHOOL/COLLEGE ETC (I, T) to give lessons in a school, college, or university: Guy s been teaching in France for 3 years now. | teach English/mathematics/history etc: Janet teaches science at a … Longman dictionary of contemporary English
Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, Thematic Index — absence absence makes the heart grow fonder he who is absent is always in the wrong the best of friends must part blue are the hills that are far away distance lends enchantment to the view out of sight, out of mind … Proverbs new dictionary
egg — see as good be an addled egg as an idle bird the same fire that melts the butter hardens the egg you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs there is reason in the roasting of eggs don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs … Proverbs new dictionary
literature — /lit euhr euh cheuhr, choor , li treuh /, n. 1. writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays. 2.… … Universalium
