It is too little for a dog to eat and it is too little for a cat to lick

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

Yesterday my wife and I attended a party. Suddenly, a friend of mine came up to me and showed me a small chicken bone. She said to me: do you know what I mean by this bone;

1. It is too little for a dog to eat and it is too little for a cat to lick.
or
2. It is too little for a dog to gnaw on and it is too little for a cat to lick.
or
3. A dog won't have enough of eating and a cat won't hae enough of licking.

The meaning behind these expressions is that neither a dog nor a cat can manage to satisfy its hunger.

Would an Englishman/Englishwoman understand my attempts at explaining the idea?

 

[emsr2d2]

I wouldn't understand it. For a start, licking something will never satisfy hunger, whether you're a cat or not.

 

[JACEK1]

How would you express it?

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure what you want me to express. I still don't understand why someone at a party would show me a chicken bone and then say "Do you know what I mean by this bone?" Even the question doesn't make sense. I'd have to ask her to explain the question before deciding how I might answer.

 

[JACEK1]

Such a small chicken bone is not enough to fatten anyone.

or

One won't get fat on such a small bone.

:lol:

 

[emsr2d2]

I still don't understand the situation. Is the person who showed you the chicken bone expecting you to understand that, by showing it to you, she means one of the statements in post #5?

 

[JACEK1]

No, the understanding goes without saying. I know what she means the moment I see the bone.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, you must be telepathic!

 

[JACEK1]

Please try and imagine the party. The table is laden with food, all sorts of cakes, freshly baked bread and lard, various potato or apple pancakes. Besides, there is a lot of other tasty food. Against this background, the friend pulls a thin chicken bone out of a pot and says: how is it possible for a dog or a cat to put on weight on something like that (the bone, of course)?

She contrasts the bone with the food on the table.

Do you understand now?

 

[Rover_KE]

Such a small chicken bone is not enough to fatten anyone.

or

One won't get fat on such a small bone.

:lol:

But people don't eat bones.

 

[JACEK1]

But dogs do.

 

[Rover_KE]

Are there dogs at the party?

 

[jutfrank]

Is there any meat on the bone or has someone (whether human, canine or feline) already chewed the meat off the bone and then stuck it back in the pot before the woman pulls it out?

Or is it just a kind of dish that is made with bare chicken bones?

 

[emsr2d2]

Dogs that put on weight aren't just fed bones. In fact, no dogs are just fed bones. They're given actual dog food and, in a lot of cases, they're given rubbish that's designed for people too (biscuits etc). That's why they get fat.

I think there's maybe there's some cultural confusion going on here. Maybe where you are, showing someone a very small piece of food makes them think "Even a dog couldn't get fat on that".

If I were at a party with lots of food and someone showed me a small chicken bone, I would have no idea what they were on about.

 

[JACEK1]

After a short conversation with my wife tonight, I realised that some of participants of the party had been eating breadcrumbed chicken nuggets. Maybe that explains the words spoken by the friend.

 

[JACEK1]

Then it is a question of different cultures and mentality. I can't help it.

 

[GoesStation]

I think you've been working with a Polish idiom that doesn't translate into English. Idioms can be so deeply ingrained that they seem like universal truths -- until they hit the language barrier.

 

[Skrej]

We do say someone who eats very little 'eats like a mouse'.

Subsequently, a small amount of something might be small enough 'to starve a mouse'.

Edit: I just remembered that we sometimes say 'eat like a bird' as well with the same meaning as 'eat like a mouse'.

 

[tedmc]

I would say it is very odd and incongruous that, in the midst of a crowd feasting, someone draws the people's attention out of the blue to a small chicken bone and talks about how it would not be sufficient to feed a dog or a cat.

 

[Raymott]

Is this something that people only say at parties, or can you come out with a chicken bone anywhere? What would the lady's motivation be to do this? Is she trying to hit on the guy? Does she have Asperger's Syndrome?