-
One man's meat is another man's poison
One man's meat is another man's poisonWhat 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 poisonWhat 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
CulturalExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One man's meat is another man's poison; that's a true saying.
From One Third Off by Tony Sarg
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 E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas
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 J. E. (James Edmund) Vincent
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 Sarah Tytler
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 George Saintsbury
"What is one man's meat is another man's poison."
From Advice to a Mother on the Management of Her Children by Pye Henry Chavasse
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 William Hazlitt
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 J. Macdonald (James Macdonald) Oxley
Well, what’s one man’s meat is another man’s poison.
From The Locusts' Years by Mary Helen Fee
What is one man's meat is another man's poison.
From Life and Conduct by J. Cameron Lees
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.