This is a download from BBC Learning English.

To find out more, visit our website.

The English We Speak

from BBC learning English.

com. Hello and welcome'm Rob.

Hello and I'm Rob.

Hello.

In this program, as you know, we like to add a little humour while teaching our phrases.

Yes, usually it involves a misunderstanding.

For example, we often pretend that one of the presenters doesn't understand the phrase.

Yes, they take it too literally. They only understand its word-for-word meaning.

But with this phrase, that would just be too horrible.

And disgusting. And not to mention physically impossible. So let's not go there.

Today's phrase is, eat your heart out.

Scary, huh? Thankfully it has nothing to do with eating an important part of your body.

It's an unusual expression. When people say it, they often follow it with the name of a famous or successful person that they want to be compared to.

But why? It's easiest to explain with an example.

Imagine you're painting a picture. When you finish, you say,

eat your heart out, Picasso.

And what you're saying is that your painting is better than Picasso's.

But because Picasso was a true master and your own work is probably not at the same level.

Most likely you would be saying this as a joke.

...