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English Idiom: Eat like a horse
Horses are big.
I hope we can all agree with that statement.
We can also all agree that if a horse is big, it requires a lot of food.
Therefore, it is easy to understand that eating like a horse means eating a lot of food.
This expression can have negative or positive meanings.
In a positive sense, eating like a horse could mean that someone has a very healthy appetite.
When people are sick, they usually stop eating.
Therefore, if someone eats a lot, they must be healthy.
A: Hello, Mary. I haven’t seen your husband for ages. How is he?
B: Oh, he’s fine, eating like a horse as usual.
A: Oh, that’s good.
In another sense, today’s idiom has a negative meaning.
Husband: Hmm, that’s strange.
Wife: What? What’s strange?
Husband: These summer pants fit perfectly last year. It seems they must have shrunk.
Wife: Shrunk? Your pants didn’t shrink. You got fat!
Husband: Me? Fat? Nonsense!
Wife: You’ve been eating like a horse all winter. Eat less, move more, and your pants will fit again.
Husband: humph!
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is simple and easy to read, likely to be understood by an average 5th-grader (age 10).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 90.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.
