Word.ws English Dictionary

having eyes bigger than one's stomach

having eyes bigger than one's stomach is the present participle and gerund of have eyes bigger than one's stomach.

Meaning of have eyes bigger than one's stomach

Verb

have eyes bigger than one's stomach (third-person singular simple present has eyes bigger than one's stomach, present participle having eyes bigger than one's stomach, simple past and past participle had eyes bigger than one's stomach)

  1. (idiomatic) To take more food on one's plate than one can eat; to be greedy.
    • He has eyes bigger than his stomach.
  2. (idiomatic) To want more than one can handle.
    • When choosing software, don't have eyes bigger than your stomach. Rather, stick to whatever level of software you need, and no more.2010, Veechi Curtis, Lynley Averis, Bookkeeping For Dummies, page 75

Questions about having eyes bigger than one's stomach

What is having eyes bigger than one's stomach the present participle and gerund of?
Having eyes bigger than one's stomach is the present participle and gerund of have eyes bigger than one's stomach.

Words near having eyes bigger than one's stomach in the dictionary

  1. having down
  2. having down as
  3. having down to a science
  4. having drink taken
  5. having ears
  6. having eyes bigger than one's stomach
  7. having eyes for
  8. having eyes in the back of one's head
  9. having fingers made of lime-twigs
  10. having form
  11. having full hands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: having eyes bigger than one's stomach (page history and authors); have eyes bigger than one's stomach (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “having eyes bigger than one's stomach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/having_eyes_bigger_than_one%27s_stomach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.