"eat to live, not live to eat" meaning in English

See eat to live, not live to eat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Often attributed to Socrates and Benjamin Franklin. Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} eat to live, not live to eat, {{en-proverb}} eat to live, not live to eat
  1. (medicine, imperative) It is best not to be gluttonous; eating shouldn't be one's favorite activity, but one should eat only to supply health. Wikipedia link: Benjamin Franklin, Socrates Tags: imperative Categories (topical): Medicine Synonyms: live not to eat, but eat to live
    Sense id: en-eat_to_live,_not_live_to_eat-en-proverb-lYWAEtKP Categories (other): English proverbs Topics: medicine, sciences

Download JSON data for eat to live, not live to eat meaning in English (1.6kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Often attributed to Socrates and Benjamin Franklin.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
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      "expansion": "eat to live, not live to eat",
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    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "eat to live, not live to eat",
      "name": "en-proverb"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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  "senses": [
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          "name": "English proverbs",
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          "ref": "2013, Carl H. Klaus, A Self Made of Words: Crafting a Distinctive Persona in Nonfiction Writing",
          "text": "Balance can be used to heighten matched pairs of ideas, as in the maxim \"one should eat to live, not live to eat.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
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      "glosses": [
        "It is best not to be gluttonous; eating shouldn't be one's favorite activity, but one should eat only to supply health."
      ],
      "id": "en-eat_to_live,_not_live_to_eat-en-proverb-lYWAEtKP",
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(medicine, imperative) It is best not to be gluttonous; eating shouldn't be one's favorite activity, but one should eat only to supply health."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "live not to eat"
        },
        {
          "word": "but eat to live"
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  "word": "eat to live, not live to eat"
}
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  "etymology_templates": [],
  "etymology_text": "Often attributed to Socrates and Benjamin Franklin.",
  "head_templates": [
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          "text": "Balance can be used to heighten matched pairs of ideas, as in the maxim \"one should eat to live, not live to eat.\"",
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        "(medicine, imperative) It is best not to be gluttonous; eating shouldn't be one's favorite activity, but one should eat only to supply health."
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      "word": "but eat to live"
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  "word": "eat to live, not live to eat"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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