Idiom
meat market
Meaning
A place where one goes for a casual sexual encounter, such as a bar (establishment) or nightclub.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That nightclub is just a meat market.”
“He refused to go to the new bar because he heard it was a total meat market.”
“She felt uncomfortable at the party because it felt like a meat market where everyone was just judging each other based on their looks.”
“The crowded lounge functioned primarily as a meat market, where patrons prioritized fleeting encounters over genuine conversation.”
Examples
simple
“That nightclub is just a meat market.”
contextual
“He refused to go to the new bar because he heard it was a total meat market.”
“She felt uncomfortable at the party because it felt like a meat market where everyone was just judging each other based on their looks.”
complex
“The crowded lounge functioned primarily as a meat market, where patrons prioritized fleeting encounters over genuine conversation.”
Origin
The colloquial sense was coined in the 1950s, though the habit of likening human sexual activity to meat dates to at least the 16th century. Early modern English records numerous variations on the theme, including the 16th-century phrases "to have a jumble in the giblets" and "to have a bit of mutton."
The association persists in the term "carnal relations," derived from the Latin *caro*, meaning flesh or meat. The 1950s coinage simply applied the marketplace setting to an existing linguistic preference for describing physical intimacy in terms of the butcher's inventory.
Key words
Related idioms
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