stick to someone's ribs

verb

To be filling, especially due to having a heavy meaty or glutinous consistency.

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Meanings

verbstick to someone's ribs (third-person singular simple present sticks to someone's ribs, present participle sticking to someone's ribs, simple past and past participle stuck to someone's ribs)

present singular third person sticks to someone's ribs · participle present sticking to someone's ribs · participle past stuck to someone's ribs · past stuck to someone's ribs

  1. idiomaticTo be filling, especially due to having a heavy meaty or glutinous consistency.

    Those two mincemeat tarts hadn't stuck to his ribs the way he'd thought they would.

    1990, Charlotte MacLeod, The Grub-and-Stakers Spin a Yarn (2012 Open Road edition), ch. 12 (Google preview)
    2 more examples

    When I came to the cold lunch and fried breakfast poor Evans' face fell; he evidently doesn't much believe in the virtue of food, unless it is in the form of a hoosh and has some chance of sticking to one's ribs.

    1905, Robert F. Scott, The Voyage of the Discovery, Volume 2 (2014 Cambridge University Press edition), p. 274 (Google books)

    I've been trying to find a way to incorporate more vegetarian dishes into my everyday rotation, and to be honest, it's been hard to find something hearty and that sticks to my ribs, that's also meat free.

    2017 April 14, Ashley Edds, “7 Tasty Slow-Cooker Vegetarian Dinners Even Meat Eaters Will Love”, in women.com, retrieved 27 Apr 2017

Translations

Esperanto satigi
  • satigiTranslations
Finnish ravita
  • ravitaTranslations
French tenir au corps
  • tenir au corpsTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

stick to someone's ribs. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stick%20to%20someone's%20ribs

MLA

“stick to someone's ribs.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stick%20to%20someone's%20ribs. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stick to someone's ribs,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stick%20to%20someone's%20ribs.

Source: stick to someone's ribs on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.