make a meal of

present singular third person makes a meal of · participle present making a meal of · participle past made a meal of · past made a meal of · alternative make a meal out of

1. idiomatictransitiveTo spend more time and energy on some task than it warrants; to make something overly complicated; to make a big thing out of.

   Some people can make a meal out of the simplest task. If you give it to a busy person, they don’t have time to muck around on the edges and worry about it — they’ll just do it.

   1997, Alison Aprhys, Careers in Publishing and Bookselling: How to Get the Job You Want, Hale & Iremonger, →ISBN, page 191

   3 more examples

   They both looked good – I would have been happy with either version. There was no point in making a meal of the decision, so I just picked up the one which was nearest to me on the desk and said, ‘We’ll go with this one.’

   a. 2004, Kate Williams, Using Information for Decision Making, Second edition, Elsevier, published 2004, →ISBN, page 53

   page 131: And if he preferred Viva, fine. She wasn't going to make a meal of it or even give them the satisfaction of a scene. page 524: Make it quick and painless, she'd told herself, don't make a meal of it.

   2008, Julia Gregson, East of the Sun, Simon and Schuster, published 2009, →ISBN

   Ford's character is a bit one-note, and his gravelly intonation suggests a drunken poet more than a respected newsman, yet he makes a meal of the role all the same, and his pronunciation of the word "frittata" may well be the film's high point.

   2010 November 3, Andrew Barker, “Morning Glory (review)”, in Variety

2. To eat something as a meal.

   Don't walk near the tiger: it'll make a meal of you.