chew the fat

Idioms  

1. Also, chew the rag. Chat in a friendly, leisurely way, as in Let's get together for coffee and chew the fat, or John and Dave spend hours just chewing the rag. Before the 1880s in Britain, chew the fat meant “to grumble or complain,” and chew the rag also has been used in this way. Today both expressions are largely synonyms for a friendly talk or gossip session. Why this idiom uses fat and rag is not known, but some speculate that fat refers to juicy items of gossip and rag to ladies' sewing circles and the cloth they worked on while chatting.

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Example Sentences

Roberts says it is not uncommon for him to be recognised by patients and he is more than happy to "chew the fat over days gone by".

From BBC

But he immediately “loved everything — just hanging out there, chewing the fat and hearing the stories of the jornaleros.”

From Los Angeles Times

"It has been really good to chew the fat on what happened and really get a grasp of what we need to do and what needs to change," Sleightholme told BBC Sport.

From BBC

The field is young and many projects are still in their infancy; humanity is not on the verge of having a Rosetta Stone for whale songs or the ability to chew the fat with cats.

From New York Times

We were just chewing the fat one day, and he said, “Every sport has to be some mix of art and war.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• answer
• bicker
• consider
• contest
• deliberate
• oppose
• question
• wrangle