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Eat your heart out

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Latest post Sun, Jun 1 2008 2:04 AM by Grammar Geek. 10 replies.
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New2grammar  +  521363 Sat, 31 May 08 07:31 PM

I always hear "eat your heart out" and today I heard, "campaign her heart out". Is it possible to use "heart out" informally to mean "a lot/aggresively".

Oh no. I just looked up the expression "eat yor heart out" and it means

something that you say which means that you or someone you know can do something better than a person who is famous for doing that thing. I'm taking singing lessons. Celine Dion, eat your heart out!

I thought it meant eat as much as you like/can until you can't take no more. :)

Help!

Thanks in advance!
New2grammar
Joined on Tue, Nov 21 2006
Veteran Member 7,676
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Marius Hancu, 1 yr 173 days ago

Yes, it's OK:

<> http://books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=her+heart+out&as_oq=&as_eq=eat+eating&as_libcat=0&as_brr=0&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb=c&as_miny=&as_maxy=&as_isbn=
Related discussions
Marius Hancu, 1 yr 173 days ago
 

See:

set one's heart on

http://www.answers.com/topic/set-one-s-heart-on

and other idioms with heart at the above site 

New2grammar  +  521377 Sat, 31 May 08 09:06 PM

Thanks, MH. So, you do agree that eat your heart out has two different meanings, one is related to jealousy and the other binge?

 
New2grammar
MrPedantic  +  521392 Sat, 31 May 08 10:09 PM
I think you have it, N2G.

1. Eat your heart out, X!

— X, who is a specialist in this field, would nonetheless "eat his heart out with jealousy", were he to witness my performance.

2. She was X-ing her heart out.

— She was X-ing passionately / wholeheartedly / to the fullest extent of her powers.

MrP
MrPedantic
Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member 12,592
...opella forensis / adducit febris...
New2grammar, 1 yr 173 days ago

Thank you, Mr. P!

Delmobile  +  521412 Sun, 01 Jun 08 12:14 AM
I've never heard "eat your heart out" used to refer to binge eating. Only for jealousy.


Delmobile
Joined on Wed, Jan 2 2008
Contributing Member 1,078
New2grammar, 1 yr 173 days ago

Is the binge eating usage British? Anyone?

MrPedantic  +  521446 Sun, 01 Jun 08 01:17 AM
Not that I know of. (But I'm afraid there are some very strange people within the borders of our four nations; and some of them will say almost anything to get a mention in the British National Corpus.)

MrP
MrPedantic
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