Know your English

"WHAT'S THE matter with you? You look terrible."

"I have been thinking about our Indian cricket team. I feel absolutely miserable whenever they lose."

"Don't eat your heart out about a bunch of overpaid underachievers!""Eat my heart out? I haven't come across that expression before."

"When you tell someone not to `eat his heart out' about something or someone, you are telling him not to grieve or feel sad about something or someone. For example, I can say, Pandey spent a lot of time eating his heart out after the company he was working for folded."

"Sumithran has been eating his heart out ever since his neighbour sold her house and moved to another town."

"My cousin Anuradha ate her heart out when she was forced to sell her grandmother's diamonds."

"Our team didn't win. But don't eat your heart out."

"That should be the attitude. By the way, the expression, `eat your heart out' has another meaning as well. It can mean, `to be jealous'."

"I see. How about this example? When my friend heard that I had won twenty lakhs in a lottery, he ate his heart out."

"That's a good example. Do you think you will ever win twenty lakhs in a lottery?"

"Who knows? Some day fate may decide to smile on me."

"It already has. That's why you have a friend like me! Anyway, here's another example. Look you guys; these five new cars belong to me. So eat your heart out."

"That's a nasty thing to say."

"I know! And you know what the sad part is? I'll never get a chance to say something like that in real life."

"Thank god for that. By the way, I've started taking tennis lessons. Hewitt, eat your heart out. How does that sound?"

"You expect Hewitt to be jealous because you have started playing tennis?"

"Yes, because pretty soon I will be beating him!"

"Keep dreaming. I don't think the fact that you are learning tennis is going to eat away at Hewitt."

"Eat away at Hewitt? What does that mean?"

"When something `eats away at someone' or `eats at someone', it troubles or worries the person. This is one of the meanings of the expression. For example, the fact that he would soon be out of a job was eating away at Jaichand."

"The terrible state of the company was eating away at Raju."

"Vinita's financial problems ate away at her day and night."

"Vinita has financial problems? But I thought she was very rich."

"Her father is very rich, that's true. But..."

".... so why doesn't she ask her father for some money?"

"Ask him for money! Are you crazy? He'll eat her out."

"He'll eat her out? What does that mean? Does it ...."

".... when someone eats you out, what ...."

".... the expression probably means to scold someone severely. Am I right?"

"I am impressed. Can you give me an example?"

"The Principal ate the teacher out and put the fear of God into her."

"Didn't the other teachers protest?"

"That was just an example. The Principal that we have now is too timid to eat anyone out."

"The coach ate the player out for playing an irresponsible shot."

"When the students walked in half an hour late, the Professor really ate them out."

"That was a good example. By the way, how did you guess the meaning of `eat someone out'?"

"Well, `eat someone out' sounds like `chew someone out'. And I know that `chew someone out' means to scold someone."

"Very good. And like the expression `chew someone out', `eat someone out' is mainly used in informal contexts. In fact, `chew someone out' is considered to be slang."

"The teacher chewed me out for coming late to class.''

"The coach gave the entire team a good chewing out."

"John Wright has to probably give our players a good chewing out every other day. Unfortunately, it seems to have no effect on them."

"It's getting late. I'd better go. Are you eating out today?"

"No, I am eating in for a change."

"Eating in? Is it the opposite of `eating out'?"

"That's right! When you say that you are eating in, what you are actually saying is you are eating at home. I am feeling very tired today. Why don't we just eat in?"

"My grandmother is a great cook. Whenever we go to her place, we always eat in."

"That's a good example. People who travel a lot generally hate eating out. When they get back home, they prefer to eat in."

"Well, I'd better be going. Today being a weekday we'll all be eating in. I don't want my father to chew me out for being late."

"What will you be having for dinner? Any idea?"

"The usual rice and sambar."

"I am planning to make pizza."

"I love pizza."

"Eat your heart out, kid!"

* * *

"The spinal column is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom." &151; A student in the U.S.

S. UPENDRAN

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