Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to my English lessons where I try to help you to speak
better English. And we do that by trying to help you with phrasal verbs
or other expressions or idiomatic expressions, improve your grammar, anything that we believe
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Okay, so what are we going to talk to you about today where we're going to talk to
you about some phrasal verbs, and specifically phrasal verbs connected with food and drink?
And of course, all of us like to eat. And we'd like to have a little
tipple. Yeah, a little drink. So food and drink are really popular,
particularly when we're talking small talk, or indeed, when we get together with our friends. We
always focus on football and other things, but particularly food and drink. Okay, so phrasal
verbs connected with food and drink. And as always, I'm going to go through them one by one,
and I'll come back to them and give you some examples. And hopefully, then you'll get a better
understanding as to how you can use them and what they mean if you hear them. Okay, let's go.
To pick at. To pick at.
To gobble down. To gobble down.
To wolf down, wolf down.
To fill you up.
To cut out or to cut back.
To dig in.
To pig out.
To knock back.
And to water down.
Okay, so 10 specific phrasal verbs, and let me take them one by one.
So let's look at the first to pick at. Well, when somebody is picking at their food,
it means they've either lost their appetite, or they're not so interested in the food. Or
they're as we used to refer to them as a very picky eater. Yeah, my mother would always say,
Oh, Harry, don't be such a picky eater. Just eat your food, eat what's in front of you. Okay, so
if you spoke to my wife, now, she would definitely tell you, I'm not a picky eater. So when we say to
pick at something, we play around with it on the plate. Or the kids play around with it,
and they might eat a little bit but they're not really too fussed on it. So
as you all know, if you've got children trying to get your kids to eat vegetables,
not so easy trying to get them to eat something that doesn't begin with a Big Mac is not so easy,
either. So when they pick at the food as I said, they're, they're taking small bites,
small little pieces. And it's either a sign that they've lost their appetite or they're
not interested in the food. Or perhaps they had a chocolate bar before the meal. So to pick at.
Next to gobble down.
Well, gobble down real informal phrasal verb this. And when you gobble something,
you eat it very quickly move that. So again, parents always telling kids when they're eating,
don't gobble down your food, don't eat it so quick, you'll choke.
Or you'll get a pain in your stomach. Or you you won't get the benefit of it, you
won't taste it Sure. How can you taste the food when you eat it so quickly? So to gooble down.
If you watch dogs, particularly young pups,
and they see food, they'll, they, they eat it in two or three bites, they gobble it down.
Or people who are very hungry, of course, they haven't eaten for a long time, they will want
to get the food inside them as quickly as possible. So they will gobble it down very,
very quickly. So the act of eating the food really quickly, we say to gobble down and usually
we use it in the negative, 'Don't gobble down your food, don't eat it so quick.'
To wolf down is another way to say the exact same thing. So if you gobble down the food or
wolf down, the action is the same. You're eating it very, very quickly. And of course,
cost the word wolf describes exactly what wolves and dogs do. If you watch these nature programmes,
of course, they don't stop to layout the table and they don't stop to get the knife and fork they
just eat what they see and they eat it very, very quickly. So to wolf down something means to eat it
at great speed. Either because you're in a hurry, perhaps you've got a Wolfer down because you're
you're in a hurry to get out. So you're talking to your friends you In the office or the sports
club me set off, I was held up at work and I got home and I only had time to wolf down the food I
hardly tasted at all but I had to run out the door because I had to get back out to meet you guys. So
I think I've got a little bit of indigestion. Okay, so to wolf down something means you're
usually doing it in a hurry because you have somewhere to be, or somewhere to go. So it might
not necessarily be a normal way to eat. But you do it this time. Because while if you don't hurry up,
you're going to be late, you're going to miss the bus, you're going to miss the connection,
whatever it's going to be so you wolf down the food and run up the door. To wolf it down.
To fill you up. Well, this phrasal verb means yet literally, you get the feeling that you're you're
as full as you can be here. So if you haven't eaten for a few hours, or you've been exercising,
or you're just naturally feeling hungry, you're you look for something in the fridge or
your wife says, 'Look, I've just baked a pie, this will fill you up.' Yeah, and we might use the or a
nice bowl of hot soup will fill you up on a cold winter's day. And of course, it will Yeah, a nice
bowl of boiling hot soup, it's just what you want me to fill you up and make you feel
good. Or somebody might use it in the negative, don't fill yourself up with sweets, don't fill
yourself up with rubbish. So you can use it in the positive, this will fill you up. Or you can use it
in the negative to warn the kids not to be eating crisps and other snacks that will fill you up and
you won't be able to eat the food that your mother has has made in the kitchen. Okay to fill you up.
To cut out what when we cut out something it means we will stop eating it. Okay. So
it could be for dietary reasons, it could be for health reasons, it could be for both.
Or it could be just a decision you make to cut out certain foods. So you might cut out fatty foods,
you might cut out sweets, or you might cut out cakes, or you might cut out those foods that are
high in carbs. So you're you're acting on instructions from your doctor
or your personal trainer, whoever it might be. So you've cut out means they're gone completely.
So, you know, if you had a packet of these crisps twice a week and you cut them out,
you don't have any at all. So if you used to eat meat and you turn yourself into a vegan or
vegetarian, you've cut out all of those meat and dairy products. So your your don't eat
them at all. There's no There's no halfway house. So to cut out means to do something
completely. Okay. And it could again, as I said before, health reasons or some other reason.
But if we cut back on something, it means we reduce, okay, so the difference between
cut out and cut back as to cut out, gone completely. Cut back means you reduce
the amount of that food that you're eating or drinking. So you go to the doctor for your
six-monthly or annual checkup. And he looks he's getting a little bit soft around the middle there,
Harry, I think you probably need to cut back a bit on the chocolate. So you want to cut back a bit on
the snacking or you want to cut back a bit on the potatoes, whatever he might suggest. Yeah, so he's
not telling you to cut it out completely. He's suggesting that you don't eat as much of it. So
if you used to eat it three days a week, maybe only two days or one day and gradually
cut back. Okay, so the few beers that you had, you might cut back and only have them
at the weekend. So cut back, reduce, cut out, get rid of it completely. Okay. All right,
and then the next one to dig in. Well, this is a great phrasal verb to express the situations,
you know, to dig in means to get stuck in as another way to say it. So you go to your
granny's. And she has a lovely table full of food or your favourite food, the cakes and says okay,
come on in. Just dig in and help yourself. So what that means is take a quarter sit
down and just help yourself just take your plate and help yourself so when you dig in,
that's exactly what you do. You take your fork and you fill your plate, take your fork and
eat it then maybe we'll come back for a second helping yet. Dig in now. So we have an expression
in English, which is 'Dig in, you're at your granny's.' Now, so what it really means is yet
your picture yourself or imagine yourself going to your granny's who she's never going to tell
you to stop because that's what Granny's do. She's just going to sit down. He's a growing lad. This
is what he needs plenty of good, homemade healthy food. So dig in. Dig in, you're at your granny's.
And so my next phrasal verb is to pig out. Now it doesn't mean to
eat like a pig, but it means to probably eat a lot. And usually it refers to a time when
or a period when you've been cutting back perhaps in some food or you've been on a diet you've been
working out. Or maybe your normal routine is just during the week to eat a little bit more frugally.
And then at the weekend, you can pick out so we often say, Oh, come on, let's just have a
day when we pig out. You know, the weather's terrible. So that's ordering a couple of pizzas,
or we'll have a coke or you might make a nice cake, whatever it might be, whatever your
favourite food is for pigging out, so you just overindulge a little bit and you pig out. Okay.
And then we can next say to knock back and to knock back usually refers to drink. And
it usually refers to drinking something very quickly. Now, it doesn't have to be
alcohol, it can be a soft drink, it can be tea, it can be water. So usually if somebody is in a hurry
that says, Look, just knock that back quickly. And let's get out of here where if we wait too long,
we'll get stuck in the traffic. So to knock it back quickly means to drink it quickly,
or hold off from it or just knock back this tea. And then we'll be on our way. So you'll drink it
very quickly. Or perhaps you've been playing a football match. And I've been doing some other
sport and you go with your friends, perhaps for a beer and beer comes and it's nice and cold and you
drink it quickly and your friends go wow, you're not that that quickly must
have been really thirsty. So it's to do with drinking something quickly, not because it's
greed. But because you're either out of time or you don't have a lot of time,
or there's a real thirst you have a real thirst from some exertion. So you want to drink something
quickly because you believe that will quench your thirst and make you feel a lot better. So to
knock back and as I said usually to do with drink but not necessarily to do with alcohol.
And then finally, we have to water down Well, this has a few different meanings. But when
we're talking about food and drink to water down something means to make it weaker. So if you
add water to something, you dilute it, so some could be orange juice, so you water it down
because perhaps it's a little too strong for the kids are a little bit too much sugar in it. So you
add some water cold or warm water depending on season and you water it down or an old trick
of the bars and I worked in quite a few bars in my days and they used to do this
they would water down their whiskey and then sell it to you as the full price or to water
down the whiskey would be to add some water to that whiskey, but sell it as full whiskey. Okay,
so to water down means to reduce or to dilute some liquid something a little bit more concentrated
like orange juice or was that the example I gave the barman watering down the whiskey.
Okay, so they're all phrasal verbs connected with food and drinks. So let me give them to
you one more time to pick out so to pick out your food to gobble down to eat very quickly
to wolf down to really eat it like an animal to fill you up. To cut out means to remove completely
from your diet to cut back to reduce, to dig in means to help yourself as I said to dig in your
in your granny's to pig out to eat a lot of your favourite food usually not healthy food fast food
to knock back to drink very, very quickly and then to water down. Okay, so phrasal
verbs connected with food and drink hopefully there's something in there to whet your appetite.
Yeah, okay or something that you can get your teeth into. Again some expressions connected with
food and if you want to contact me well of course you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com
Always happy to hear from you. always interested in hearing from you some suggestions of things
that you want me to include in future lessons and of course if you want or some friends or
family want face to face lessons, one to one lessons for interview technique, whatever it is,
come along, ask us if won't always be me for them. Many other teachers working with me really good
professional teachers who work well with kids and adults alike. And we'd be only too glad to help
you. Okay, well, thanks for listening and thanks for watching. And as always join me again soon.