meal (redirected from making a meal)

Enjoy your meal,

an expression used by food servers after the food has been served. The waiter set the plates on the table, smiled, and said, "Enjoy your meal." Waiter: Here's your dinner. Jane: Oh, this lobster looks lovely! Tom: My steak looks just perfect. Waiter: Enjoy your meal.

See also: enjoy

make a meal of something 

1. to eat something. The cat made a meal of the fish. They made a meal of the roast beef and enjoyed it very much.

2. to eat enough of something to consider it or have it as a full meal. I really don't want to make a meal of lettuce alone. Can we make a meal of this turkey, or should we save some for sandwiches?

See also: make

square (meal)

a good and nutritious meal. (Always with quantifier when square is used without meal.) I need three squares a day—at least. The old beggar looks like he could use a square meal.

See also: square

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a meal ticket

someone or something that you use as a way of getting regular amounts of money for the rest of your life Gone are the days when a university degree was a meal ticket for life.

See also: ticket

a square meal

a big meal that provides your body with all the different types of food it needs to stay healthy Most of these supermodels don't look like they've had a square meal in their life. If you're only eating a chocolate bar for lunch you need a good square meal in the evening.

See also: square

make a meal (out) of something   (British & Australian)

to spend more time or energy doing something than is necessary I only asked her to write a brief summary of the main points but she made a real meal out of it.

See also: make

That was a [game/meal/walk etc.] and a half!  (informal)

something that you say about something that was very surprising, very good, or took a lot of time That was a walk and a half! I'm exhausted.

See Hang on a mo

See also: and, was

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a few fries short of a Happy Meal

not very intelligent I could tell he was a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but unfortunately you can't arrest someone for being stupid.

Usage notes: this idiom appears in many different forms, including a few cards short of a full deck, a few bricks short of a full load, a few clowns short of a circus, and a few Cokes short of a six-pack, all with the same meaning

See also: few, happy, short