chew the fat

English

Etymology

One of the possible origins is from the fact that after a meal people would go into their sitting room with their guests and chit chat while chewing on the fat left over from a meal.

Another possibility comes from sailors who often had salted beef and pork on long voyages and the fat would harden. Sailors would eat and complain about the hard life of the sea while "chewing the fat"

Probably just from comparison of the jaw movements in chewing to the jaw movements in talking.

Pronunciation

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Verb

chew the fat (third-person singular simple present chews the fat, present participle chewing the fat, simple past and past participle chewed the fat)

1. (informal) To chat idly or generally waste time talking.

   Synonyms: chew the rag, shoot the breeze, (vulgar) shoot the shit, shoot the bull, throw the bull

   We're not supposed to waste time chewing the fat with the customers.

Translations

chat idly or generally waste time talking — see shoot the breeze

See also

• chew the cud

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) “Chew the fat”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.