| Idiom | Bite off More than You Can Chew |
|---|---|
| Example | You can't captain the team, edit the paper, and star in the play. Don't bite off more than you can chew. |
| Meaning | to take on a task that is more than you can accomplish; to be greedy, overconfident, or too ambitious by taking on more jobs or responsibilities than you can deal with at one time |
| Origin | Versions of this saying were used in Europe in the Middle Ages and ancient China. If you take a bite of food that's too big for your mouth, you won't be able to chew it. This idea came to mean undertaking ("biting off") a job that's too much for you to handle ("more than you can chew"). |
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