Eat like a bird
- (a)Eat very quickly
- (b)Eat a lot
- (c)Eat continuously
- (d)Eat very little
Correct — D, eat very little. To eat like a bird is to take only tiny amounts of food. The phrase is the standing opposite of 'eat like a horse', which describes a very large appetite.
- (a)Eat very quickly — Speed is not what this phrase measures; for eating fast English says 'wolf down' or 'bolt one's food'.
- (b)Eat a lot — That is 'eat like a horse' — the bird in this idiom stands for a small quantity, not a large one.
- (c)Eat continuously — Steady nibbling through the day is 'graze'; this idiom points to how little is eaten, not how steadily.
'Eat like a bird' means to eat very little. It forms a fixed pair with 'eat like a horse', which means to eat a great deal.
The image behind it is a bird's small pecked mouthfuls. Birds in fact consume a great deal relative to their body weight, so the idiom rests on how the eating looks rather than on any ornithological fact — a useful reminder that idioms are not literal descriptions.
- 'Eat like a horse' means to have a very large appetite.
- 'Wolf down' and 'bolt' describe eating fast, not eating little.
- 'Pick at one's food' is a close relative of 'eat like a bird'.
- Choosing 'eat a lot' by reasoning about how much birds really consume.
- Confusing manner — quickly, continuously — with quantity.
Asked as an idioms-and-phrases item — choose the option that gives the meaning of the phrase.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'Eat like a horse' means:
- (a)eat noisily
- (b)eat very little
- (c)eat a very large amount
- (d)eat in a great hurry
Answer(c) eat a very large amount — the horse stands for a big appetite.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'To pick at one's food' means:
- (a)to eat greedily
- (b)to eat only a little, without interest
- (c)to share one's food
- (d)to cook badly
Answer(b) to eat only a little, without interest — the phrase suggests poking at a plate rather than eating it.