bite off more than (one) can chew

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bite off more than (one) can chew

To take on more responsibility than one can handle. I bit off more than I could chew when I volunteered to manage three little league teams in one season.

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bite off more than one can chew

1. Lit. to take a larger mouthful of food than one can chew easily or comfortably. I bit off more than I could chew, and nearly choked.

2. Fig. to take (on) more than one can deal with; to be overconfident. Ann is exhausted again. She's always biting off more than she can chew.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off, one

bite off more than one can chew

Take on more work or a bigger task than one can handle, as in With two additional jobs, Bill is clearly biting off more than he can chew. Cautions against taking on too much appear in medieval sources, although this particular metaphor, alluding to taking in more food than one can chew, dates only from about 1870.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off, one

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bite off more than you can chew

If you bite off more than you can chew, you try to do a task that is too big for you or too difficult. I didn't know if I could even memorize a text of that length and started to worry that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Don't bite off more than you can chew simply because everything is going so well.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

bite off more than you can chew

take on a commitment you cannot fulfil.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

bite off ˌmore than you can ˈchew

(informal) attempt to do something that is too difficult for you or that you do not have enough time to do: He’s promised to get all this work finished by the weekend but I’ve got a feeling he’s bitten off more than he can chew.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off

bite off more than (one) can chew

To decide or agree to do more than one can finally accomplish.

See also: bite, can, chew, more, off

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bite off more than one can chew, to

To take on more than one can accomplish; also, to be too greedy or too ambitious. Versions of this cliché, warning against taking on too much, date from the Middle Ages and appear in ancient Chinese writings as well. A lighthearted more recent example is Ogden Nash’s (from “Prayer at the End of a Rope,” 1939): “Let me not bite more off the cob than I have teeth to chew; please let me finish just one job before the next is due.”