teach grandma to suck eggs

A form of teach grandma how to suck eggs — To tell an expert how to do things.

Meanings

teach grandma to suck eggs1

verbteach grandma to suck eggs (third-person singular simple present teaches grandma to suck eggs, present participle teaching grandma to suck eggs, simple past and past participle taught grandma to suck eggs)

present singular third person teaches grandma to suck eggs · participle present teaching grandma to suck eggs · participle past taught grandma to suck eggs · past taught grandma to suck eggs

  1. alternativeAlternative form of teach grandma how to suck eggs.

teach Grandma to suck eggs2

verbteach Grandma to suck eggs (third-person singular simple present teaches Grandma to suck eggs, present participle teaching Grandma to suck eggs, simple past and past participle taught Grandma to suck eggs)

present singular third person teaches Grandma to suck eggs · participle present teaching Grandma to suck eggs · participle past taught Grandma to suck eggs · past taught Grandma to suck eggs

  1. alternativeAlternative form of teach grandma how to suck eggs.

    I joined an audience of 500 or so direct marketing evangelists some years ago to hear Bob set out these seven key points. It just didn’t occur to him that he was teaching Grandma to suck eggs because Bob knows the strength of this formula. His formula.

    1989, John Fraser-Robinson, “AIDA”, in The Secrets of Effective Direct Mail (The John Fraser-Robinson Direct Marketing Series), London: McGraw-Hill Book Company, →ISBN, part 2 (Direct mail: The surest, fastest way to money and success), chapter 4 (There are only four kinds of direct mail—wanted, wasted, working and wrecking), page 86
    2 more examples

    There are quite a lot of other useful macros embedded in the header files to cover many different functions, far more than we can list in detail here. However, at the risk of teaching Grandma to suck eggs, here is a neat way to find out where the macros are defined. Once you know where they are, it’s easy to take a peek at the header file in question and find out the rest.

    2000, Peter Wright, “Building the User Interface”, in Beginning GTK+/GNOME Programming (Linux Programming Series), Birmingham: Wrox Press, →ISBN, chapter 18 (Application: Image Viewer), “Writing the Code” section, page 469

    ‘Well, son, quite a few Americans have joined us, but none of them, except you, is on this boat. They’re all in basic training and if they get through that, they’ll go for flight training. / ‘What sets you apart is your flying hours. You have more than the average Air Force pilot. Why waste time teaching Grandma to suck eggs? We need to get you into a cockpit as soon as possible so you can start making a difference.[…]’

    2017, Melvyn Fickling, “Trajectus”, in Bluebirds: A Battle of Britain Novel, The Book Conspiracy, published 2018, →ISBN, part 2 (Arduum), page 124
Cite this entry
APA

teach grandma to suck eggs. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teach%20grandma%20to%20suck%20eggs

MLA

“teach grandma to suck eggs.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teach%20grandma%20to%20suck%20eggs. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “teach grandma to suck eggs,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/teach%20grandma%20to%20suck%20eggs.

Source: teach grandma to suck eggs on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.