swallow the dictionary

present singular third person swallows the dictionary · participle present swallowing the dictionary · participle past swallowed the dictionary · past swallowed the dictionary

1. idiomaticinformalTo speak using long or obscure words.

   “You swallowed the dictionary?” said Mrs. Black, with an ingratiating smile.

   2014, Doris Lessing, African Stories, →ISBN, page 293

   3 more examples

   I swear, I don't know where you get all this swallowing the dictionary business!” - He himself never read anything but the ticker and the sporting news.

   1918, The Saturday Evening Post - Volume 190, page 5

   Knowledge is deposited in (virtual and real) libraries. People who “swallow” the dictionary are articulate, eloquent and verbally dextrous. They have a greater store of words. Knowledge is captured in books, which is why the number of books in a household contains an excellent index of the social class of that house.

   2011, Adrian Furnham, Managing People in a Downturn, →ISBN

   When I used a couple of words that an Uncle from the Boston States considered beyond my years, he asked me if I had swallowed the dictionary.

   2014, Ray Simm, Hants Hills To Arctic Tundra, →ISBN, page 103