Meaning & use
shove food in mouth
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phraseinformal
To put large amounts of food into your mouth very quickly and without care.
Grammar: Used as a whole phrase with a possessive before 'mouth': he shoved food in his mouth.
Patterns
- shove food in your mouth
- shove food in his/her mouth
- shove something in your mouth
He shoved food in his mouth and ran out the door.
Stop shoving food in your mouth like that — you'll choke.
She shoved food in her mouth while the taxi waited outside.
phrasefixed phraseinformaldisapproving
To eat very fast and greedily, especially in a way other people find rude.
Grammar: Describes a habit or repeated behavior, so it often appears with 'always' or 'keeps': he keeps shoving food in his mouth.
Patterns
- keep shoving food in your mouth
- always shove food in your mouth
The kids kept shoving food in their mouths until the plate was empty.
He always shoves food in his mouth at lunch and is finished in five minutes.
Common combinations
- shove food in your mouth
- Don't shove food in your mouth while you're talking.
- shove a sandwich in your mouth
- She shoved a sandwich in her mouth between meetings.
- shove it in your mouth
- He grabbed the cake and shoved it in his mouth.
- shove food down
- He shoved his food down and left the table.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gobble
- Gobble means eating fast and noisily, but it does not mention the mouth or the action of pushing food in.
- wolf down
- Wolf down focuses on finishing food quickly; it says nothing about how the food goes into your mouth.
- stuff yourself
- Stuff yourself means eating too much in general, while this phrase is about the quick, careless action itself.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: shove food in mouth or shove off? shove food in mouth or mouthful?
shove food in mouth vs shove off
Shove off is a rude way of telling someone to go away; it has nothing to do with eating.
shove food in mouth vs mouthful
A mouthful is the amount of food you can hold in your mouth at one time, not the action of eating fast.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
The phrase needs a possessive before 'mouth' and the preposition 'in': his mouth. 'In mouth' without a possessive is not natural English, and 'on his mouth' suggests food resting on the outside of the mouth rather than going inside it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shove food in mouth”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.