- English translation
With no bread for supper, they ate radishes just to burp as if they were full.
- Literal wording
They did not find bread to have supper with; they brought radishes so they could belch.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying ridicules people who are actually poor but act as if they live in comfort. Having no bread for supper, they eat cheap radishes, which are believed to cause belching. They then stage those burps as an imitation of the contented sounds of someone who has dined well, though no real satisfaction lies behind them.
More broadly, it targets any staged display of prosperity that hides real want. The irony is that the supposed proof of plenty comes from the poorest food at hand. The pretense is therefore both hollow and easy to see through, and it invites amusement rather than admiration.
- When it is used
Use it to mock someone who flaunts comfort or wealth they do not actually have, especially when the show is obviously contrived. Because it exposes poverty as well as pretense, saying it to someone directly can wound. It is not appropriate for sympathetic talk about genuine hardship.
- Register
- Colloquial; teasing or mocking
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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