eat one's Wheaties en · VERB
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
Etymology
An allusion to the breakfast cereal Wheaties, long advertised as the "Breakfast of Champions", and its long-standing association with sports celebrities.
Meanings
-
(Canada, US, idiomatic) To prepare or fortify oneself for an activity requiring exertion.
But he just couldn't get the ball through the goal posts (poor Harry . . . he didn't eat his Wheaties, or else his shoe was on backwards).
1971 October 19, Haney Reilly, “Another game, another loss but Hawkeyes looked better”, in Telegraph-Herald, Iowa, USA, retrieved 01 Jul 2011, page 17:Of all the movie promotions in all the towns in all the world, Keanu Reeves had to walk into this one: a California Institute of Technology forum at which he was asked, “How could an alien being grow so fast without violating standard mass- and energy-conservation laws?” . . . He paused. “I ate my Wheaties.”
2008 December 10, Felicity Barringer, “Science Students Get a Real-Life Lesson, in Science Fiction”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Jul 2011:Jo-Ann Wonsik answered a Herald want ad for a career requiring day after day of heavy lifting. . . . "And you've got to eat your Wheaties on this job," she said.
1994 September 11, “Garbage Collector Lifts Away Worries”, in Miami Herald, page 1B:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ate one's Wheaties | Tense=Past | lexicographic | |
| eaten one's Wheaties | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| eating one's Wheaties | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| eats one's Wheaties | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic |
Relateds
gird up one's loins · have one's Weetabix · destroy the evidence
Translations (2)
sv (skaffa sig) råg i ryggen (fortify oneself) · sv äta upp gröten (fortify oneself)