Word.ws English Dictionary

it ain't the meat, it's the motion

it ain't the meat, it's the motion proverb: when it comes to sexual satisfaction, the size of the penis does not matter, but technique during intimacy does.

Proverb

it ain't the meat, it's the motion

  1. (slang, vulgar) When it comes to sexual satisfaction, the size of the penis does not matter, but technique during intimacy does.
    • It ain't the meat it's the motion/That makes your daddy want to rock/It ain't the meat it's the motion/It's the movement it ain't the stock.1951, Lois Mann, Henry Glover, It Ain't the Meat (It's the Motion)
    • We girls know the truth in that old song “It Ain't the Meat, It's the Motion,” but no matter how confident a man is, he secretly believes that the motion just isn't enough.1999, Anonymous Too, Monica Lewinsky's Guide to Dating, →ISBN, page 63
  2. (broadly) The tools that one uses to accomplish a goal are not as important as what one does with them.
    • When the engineer was asked by other clients, "Can you make the drums sound like Bonham?," he simply smiled and said, "Sure! Just play like 'im!" So lesson number one is that it ain't the meat, it's the motion, to paraphrase the old blues tune.1985, Sonic Options Network, Option, page 15
    • By focusing on the medium rather than the message, the pottery rather than the pattern, the typeface rather than the tale, philosophers who claim that something ineffable about carbon's chemistry is indispensable for consciousness miss the boat. As Daniel Dennett once wittily remarked in a...2008, Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop, →ISBN, page 195

Forms of it ain't the meat, it's the motion

alternative formit's not the meat, it's the motion

Origin of it ain't the meat, it's the motion

From the song It Ain't the Meat (it's the Motion) by Lois Mann and Henry Glover, written in 1951 and recorded by The Swallows. Often mistakenly attributed to Maria Muldaur, who sang a cover of the song on her 1974 album Waitress In The Donut Shop.

Questions about it ain't the meat, it's the motion

What does it ain't the meat, it's the motion mean?
It ain't the meat, it's the motion means when it comes to sexual satisfaction, the size of the penis does not matter, but technique during intimacy does.
What part of speech is it ain't the meat, it's the motion?
It ain't the meat, it's the motion is a proverb.

Words near it ain't the meat, it's the motion in the dictionary

  1. it
  2. it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings
  3. it ain't over till it's over
  4. it ain't over till the fat lady sings
  5. it ain't over until the fat lady sings
  6. it ain't the meat, it's the motion
  7. it ain't the whistle that pulls the train
  8. it bag
  9. it bags
  10. IT band
  11. IT bands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: it ain't the meat, it's the motion (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.

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Cite this entry: “it ain't the meat, it's the motion.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/it_ain%27t_the_meat%2C_it%27s_the_motion. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.