ippai kuwasu lit. ‘to make someone eat a bowlful’
Japanese idiom, colloquial. To tease someone by telling them something untrue as a joke.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Japanese speaker.
How do people use 一杯食わす
?
Colloquial, and nearly always told from the side of the one who got fooled, in the passive: “一杯食わされた” (I got had). Both Daijisen’s example (“今度ばかりは一杯食わされた”, this time they really got me) and the Tatoeba sentence use that form. It covers anything from a friendly prank to a sly bit of cheating, so the tone comes from context.
一杯食わす
in real sentences
-
あいつに一杯食わされた。
Aitsu ni ippai kuwasareta.
I was deceived by him.
Tatoeba, sentence by small_snow, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does 一杯食わす
come from?
Nobody knows why a bowlful means a trick. English Wiktionary only breaks it into 一杯 (a cup or bowl) and 食わす (to make someone eat), and Daijisen gives the meaning without an explanation. The picture of getting someone to swallow something whole is easy to read, but no source I found confirms that’s where it came from.
Mistakes learners make with 一杯食わす
Reading 一杯 as “ichihai”. It’s ippai, the same word as “a cupful” or “full”, and the verb is the blunt 食う/食わす (eat), not the polite 食べる; “一杯食べさせる” just means feeding someone a bowl of food.
Other Japanese idioms like 一杯食わす
Spot a mistake in 一杯食わす
?
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