Meaning & use
stick to your ribs
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiominformal
(of food) filling and slow to digest, so you stay full for a long time.
Grammar: Used after a food word and a linking verb: 'The porridge sticks to your ribs.' The pronoun stays 'your' even when you are talking about yourself.
Patterns
- something sticks to your ribs
- a meal that sticks to your ribs
- stick to your ribs (after a noun: 'rib-sticking food')
A bowl of thick bean soup really sticks to your ribs on a cold day.
My grandmother always said that oatmeal sticks to your ribs better than toast.
They serve plain, hearty food here — nothing fancy, but it sticks to your ribs.
phraseidiominformalfigurative
(of a meal or dish) heavy and satisfying rather than light or delicate.
Grammar: Often used before a noun in the form 'rib-sticking': 'a rib-sticking breakfast'. The full phrase follows a linking verb.
Patterns
- a rib-sticking meal
- rib-sticking food
After the hike we wanted something rib-sticking, not a small salad.
He cooked a rib-sticking casserole for the whole family.
Common combinations
- really sticks to your ribs
- That barley stew really sticks to your ribs.
- a meal that sticks to your ribs
- We need a meal that sticks to your ribs before the long drive.
- hearty and sticks to your ribs
- The food was hearty and stuck to your ribs.
- something hot that sticks to your ribs
- Give him something hot that sticks to your ribs.
Synonyms and how they differ
- filling
- A plain adjective for food that makes you feel full; it says nothing about how long the feeling lasts, which is the point of 'sticks to your ribs'.
- hearty
- Describes warm, generous, satisfying food, especially in a traditional style; it is more about size and warmth than about staying full.
- substantial
- A more neutral, slightly formal word for a large or solid meal; it fits writing better than this informal idiom.
Opposites
Word family
- rib-sticking adjective
- A short adjective form of the same idea, meaning filling and satisfying, as in 'a rib-sticking lunch'.
Commonly confused: stick to your ribs or stick to something?
stick to your ribs vs stick to something
The phrasal verb 'stick to' means to keep doing or not change something, as in 'stick to your plan'. The food idiom is a fixed phrase and does not mean 'stay loyal to your ribs'.
Practice
Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is 'stick to your ribs', with a plural 'ribs' and the preposition 'to'. Option 2 uses the wrong number, option 3 uses 'on' instead of 'to', and option 4 drops the preposition altogether.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “stick to your ribs”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.