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Has anyone ever heard the phrase, "Don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs."

F

foidulus

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2007
904
1
I was looking something up in a dictionary and I came across "Don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs." as an example sentence. Despite speaking English for almost 30 years now, I have never heard that phrase before, I actually had to google it to find out what it means. The general gist is that you shouldn't try to teach things to people who are more experienced than you, I guess grandma is a real egg sucker......

Anyway I was just curious to see if anyone has ever heard/used this phrase before. Is it a regional thing?
 
Never heard of that phrase before. It's probably an American thing, sounds really unusual :D
 
That's a pretty common phrase in the UK. Surprised you haven't come across it before R94N. Must be falling out of use and I guess you're a young whipper snapper (there's another one for you ;) )
 
The only time I've ever heard this phrase is in the silly "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song from the classic Ren & Stimpy episode Stimpy's Invention. The verse in question:

... I don't think you're happy enough.
That's right... I'll teach you to be happy!
I'll teach your grandmother to suck eggs!...

Otherwise, no. A disturbing image, indeed.
 
Really, really, surprised there's people here in the UK who haven't heard this phrase before. I've used it a lot (mind you I'm probably older than some of the other posters here) - particularly when trying to explain something to a client that they should really know about already. (I'm actually using it more and more these days ;) )

Good pint about the mental image though - anyone got any fun alternatives?
 
Grandmothers used to suck eggs through a small hole in the shell at Easter so that they could be used as decoration for the season after the shells were painted. Presumably the general absence of teeth made grannies less prone to break the eggs. It's a vanishing skill...
 
skunk said:
Grandmothers used to suck eggs through a small hole in the shell at Easter so that they could be used as decoration for the season after the shells were painted. Presumably the general absence of teeth made grannies less prone to break the eggs. It's a vanishing skill...
Click to expand...

Oh great, now I can add sucking to that mental image... :p
 

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