English · Idiom Candidate

chew the meat and spit out the bones

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

To accept the useful parts and reject the useless parts of something

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Chấp nhận phần hữu ích và loại bỏ phần vô ích

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: separate and discard inedible parts while eating

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

We need to chew the meat and spit out the bones when listening to his advice

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Topics: Food Bones & skin

Common questions

What does “chew the meat and spit out the bones” mean?

To accept the useful parts and reject the useless parts of something Literally: separate and discard inedible parts while eating

Is “chew the meat and spit out the bones” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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