Idiom
teach grandma how to suck eggs
Meaning
To tell an expert how to do things.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“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.”
Examples
simple
“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.”
contextual
“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.”
complex
“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.”
Origin
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.
Key words
Related idioms
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