egg on

Idioms

Incite, urge ahead, provoke, as in Jack is always egging me on to drive faster, or Seemingly quiet, Margo actually eggs on Donald to quarrel with his staff. This expression has nothing to do with hen's eggs but comes from an Old Norse word, eggja, “to edge.” Both edge on and egg on were used interchangeably, but today the latter is preferred. [c. 1200]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Bardella was at an event in Moissac, southwest France, to promote his latest book when a man broke the egg on his head.

From Barron's • Nov. 29, 2025

Whip up pappa al pomodoro and slide a poached egg on top like a wink.

From Salon • Jun. 16, 2025

Executives at UnitedHealth Group had egg on their faces on Tuesday morning.

From Slate • May 14, 2025

He told the hearing: "Jeremy Kyle had got the crowd to egg on, to boo at him and stuff, he was cast as the liar before he had even spoken."

From BBC • Sep. 5, 2024

Roz placed the egg on a pad of moss.

From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023