teach grandma how to suck eggs

teach grandma how to suck eggs verb: to tell an expert how to do things.

Verb (1)

teach grandma how to suck eggs (third-person singular simple present teaches grandma how to suck eggs, present participle teaching grandma how to suck eggs, simple past and past participle taught grandma how to suck eggs)

(idiomatic) To tell an expert how to do things.
- Madam, reply’d Joler, you would have me teach my Grandame to ſuck Eggs, or ſet up for a Lent Preacher.[1707, Francisco de Quevedo, translated by John Stevens, “The Dog and the Fever: An Unaccountable Novel: or, A Rapsody”, in The Comical Works of Don Francisco de Quevedo, […], London: […] John...

teach Grandma how to suck eggs (third-person singular simple present teaches Grandma how to suck eggs, present participle teaching Grandma how to suck eggs, simple past and past participle taught Grandma how to suck eggs)

Alternative letter-case form of teach grandma how to suck eggs.
- Every man who attended those Sunday lunches at the old Fox and Hounds inn at Darenth in the ’seventies and ’eighties could have told one of these things about almost every common British lepidopteron. How they would have laughed at such a book as Larval Foo[d]plants! “Teaching Grandma how to suck...1956 May, P. B. M. Allan, “Larval Foodplants”, in B. R. Stallwood, editor, The Bulletin of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, volume 15, number 185, London: The Amateur Entomologists’ Society […]...
- Let’s assume that a rocket or gun line has got to the right position in the casualty. It is a slim weak line in itself and something more substantial is required quickly. First then a heaving line or a point line is attached and hauled across. When that, still smallish, line is in hand a medium...1977, Gerald Forsberg, “Stricken vessels. Ocean towage”, in Salvage from the Sea, London; Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge and Kegan Paul, →ISBN, page 67

third-person singular present	teaches grandma how to suck eggs
present participle	teaching grandma how to suck eggs
past participle	taught grandma how to suck eggs
past	taught grandma how to suck eggs
alternative form	teach Grandma how to suck eggs
alternative form	teach grandma to suck eggs
alternative form	teach Grandma to suck eggs
third-person singular present	teaches Grandma how to suck eggs
present participle	teaching Grandma how to suck eggs
past participle	taught Grandma how to suck eggs
past	taught Grandma how to suck eggs

First attested circa 18th century, from Spanish: see quotation.

What does teach grandma how to suck eggs mean?: Teach grandma how to suck eggs means to tell an expert how to do things.
What is teach grandma how to suck eggs in Vietnamese?: Teach grandma how to suck eggs in Vietnamese is múa rìu qua mắt thợ. See Teach grandma how to suck eggs meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is teach grandma how to suck eggs?: Teach grandma how to suck eggs is a verb.
What is the past tense of teach grandma how to suck eggs?: The past tense of teach grandma how to suck eggs is taught grandma how to suck eggs.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-teach grandma how to suck eggs.ogg.

Cite this entry: “teach grandma how to suck eggs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/teach_grandma_how_to_suck_eggs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.