boardinghouse reach

Idioms  

1. Reaching across fellow diners for food instead of asking them to pass it. For example, At holiday meals when the whole family is gathered, Dad always scolds at least one child for his boardinghouse reach. This term alludes to the formerly common boardinghouse practice of seating all the residents at one large table and to the rudeness of those who simply reached across others to help themselves. Heard less often today, it is not quite obsolete. [c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

Born in Mississippi, where his mother ran a boardinghouse, Claiborne decided early in life that boardinghouse reach was not his preferred style of eating.

From Time Magazine Archive

His boardinghouse reach even stretches southward across the Gulf of Aden, where he is aiding Somali terrorists who lay claim to one-fourth of the northern territory of Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya.

From Time Magazine Archive

Deceptive speed and a boardinghouse reach enable him to keep the puck away from hard-checking defensemen, which contributes to his�and Boston's�soaring point production.

From Time Magazine Archive

And Russia, wolfing her conquests in eastern Europe and Manchuria, hungered for still more that was outside the boardinghouse reach of the Red Army.

From Time Magazine Archive