clay eater
Americannoun
Usually Disparaging.
Sensitive Note
This term refers to the eating of clay-rich dirt, a persistent custom among poor white and Black people in some rural areas of the South.
Etymology
Origin of clay eater
An Americanism dating back to 1835–45
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
