teach grandma how to suck eggs
To tell an expert how to do things.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Do not try to teach grandma how to suck eggs.”
“You are teaching grandma how to suck eggs by showing me how to drive.”
“She stops talking because she does not want to teach grandma how to suck eggs.”
“The intern tried to explain the software to the lead engineer, who felt like he was teaching grandma how to suck eggs.”
“I felt embarrassed when I tried to explain baking to a professional chef, realizing I was just teaching grandma how to suck eggs.”
“He knows more about gardening than anyone else, so giving him basic tips is like teaching grandma how to suck eggs.”
“Given her thirty years of experience in the field, the consultant found it quite patronizing when the junior manager attempted to teach grandma how to suck eggs.”
First attested in the 18th century, the expression is a translation from the Spanish. The specific activity of extracting the contents of an egg via a small hole was a commonplace domestic skill of the era, the suggestion being that one's elder had likely mastered the technique well before the speaker was born.
- 01
eggs in moonshine
A fanciful notion; an unrealistic or ludicrous concept.
- 02
kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
To seek short-term gain at the sacrifice of long-term profit.
- 03
lay eggs
To produce a string of failures or flops.
- 04
price of eggs
Something that is relevant or important, usually used to emphasize that another, compared thing is irrelevant, unimportant, or non sequitur.
- 05
put all one's eggs in one basket
To rely on a single source (as of income), rather than diversifying.
- 06
suck a big one
To be terrible; to be of a very low standard.
- 07
suck a lemon
To be in a sour or negative mood.
- 08
suck and blow
To perform two incompatible actions; to hold views which are in contradiction.
Last updated August 10, 2026