/pækt laɪk sɑːˈdiːnz/
English idiom, informal. Packed tightly together in a crowded place.
Draft Not yet checked by a native English speaker.
How do people use Packed like sardines
?
Informal, used about people squeezed into a bus, train, room or elevator: “We were packed like sardines.” It nearly always goes with “be” or “get”, and you can add “in”: “packed in like sardines”.
Also said packed in like sardines, crammed like sardines
Packed like sardines
in real sentences
-
They’re packed like sardines on the bus.
Tatoeba, sentence by Amastan, CC BY 2.0 FR
-
We were packed like sardines in the auditorium.
Tatoeba, sentence by sundown, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Packed like sardines
come from?
It refers to sardines pressed tightly into a can, as English Wiktionary explains, citing the Oxford English Dictionary. Canned sardines became common in the 19th century, so the simile can’t be much older than that, but no exact first use is recorded.
Mistakes learners make with Packed like sardines
Learners use it for objects that are neatly arranged. It’s about people (or animals) squashed uncomfortably close together.
Other English idioms like Packed like sardines
Spot a mistake in Packed like sardines
?
Send a correction, or a sentence you’d actually say with it. Everything is read before anything on this page changes.