eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Spend most of your daily resources in the morning
Literally: Consume large, medium, and small meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner respectively
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, 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.
Common questions
What does “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” mean?
Spend most of your daily resources in the morning Literally: Consume large, medium, and small meals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner respectively
Is “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.