Jump To:

• One man's meat is another man's poison
  One man's meat is another man's poison

  What is good for one person may be bad for another; what is pleasant to one person may be unpleasant to another.
• one man's meat is another man's poison
  one man's meat is another man's poison

  What is good for or enjoyed by one is not necessarily so for someone else. This adage, first recorded in 1576, is so well known it is often shortened, as in Pat loves to travel to remote areas but that's not for Doris—one man's meat, you know. Also see no accounting for tastes.

One man's meat is another man's poison

Cultural  

1. What is good for one person may be bad for another; what is pleasant to one person may be unpleasant to another.

---

one man's meat is another man's poison Idioms  

1. What is good for or enjoyed by one is not necessarily so for someone else. This adage, first recorded in 1576, is so well known it is often shortened, as in Pat loves to travel to remote areas but that's not for Doris—one man's meat, you know. Also see no accounting for tastes.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

One man's meat is another man's poison one man's meat is another man's poison

We do not require to be told, in the words which shocked Lord Chesterfield but do not annoy a humble admirer of his, that "One man's meat is another man's poison."

From A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by Saintsbury, George

One man's meat is another man's poison all the world over and for all time; and there can be no progress, no wholesale and beneficial change in the ways of life, without much incidental tribulation.

From Through East Anglia in a Motor Car by Vincent, J. E. (James Edmund)

One man's meat is another man's poison; that's a true saying.

From One Third Off by Sarg, Tony

One man's meat is another man's poison; one man's duty is not his neighbour's.

From Girlhood and Womanhood The Story of some Fortunes and Misfortunes by Tytler, Sarah

One man's meat is another man's poison, as they say.

From The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 5 The Letters of Charles and Mary Lamb, 1796-1820 by Lucas, E. V. (Edward Verrall)

With reference to this last maxim, bear in mind that "what is one man's meat is another man's poison."

From Psychotherapy by Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

"As one man's meat is another man's poison?" he said.

From Ideala by Grand, Sarah

Again, as to what are called nuisances, to wit offensive smells, sounds, etc., it is more difficult to determine, on the ground that one man’s meat is another man’s poison.

From Winterslow Essays and Characters Written There by Hazlitt, William

Yet it is not the less true that "what is one man's meat is another man's poison," and food that is absolutely harmless to one may disorder the entire digestion of another.

From The Opium Habit by Day, Horace B.

But what is one man's meat is another man's poison, according to the homely adage, and in this case what made Frank so happy made—Damase miserable.

From The Young Woodsman Life in the Forests of Canada by Oxley, J. Macdonald (James Macdonald)