egg on

Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

egg on

Put a fried egg on top while you’re at it.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

Cyber security Professor Alan Woodward from Surrey University told reporters OpenAI had "egg on it's face", and Katie Moussouris from Luta Security went further, suggesting the AI industry is failing to control its dangerous inventions.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

In the comment section, one fan replied to egg on the content creator, “Yes, tell us what happened with Alex Cooper thank you.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2026

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

She had a smear of breakfast egg on her chin and the blurry eyes of someone who has just stopped crying.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez