eat one's head off

English

Verb

eat one's head off (third-person singular simple present eats one's head off, present participle eating one's head off, simple past ate one's head off, past participle eaten one's head off)

1. (idiomatic) Of an animal: to cost more to feed than it is worth.
   • 1861, Anthony Trollope, Framley Parsonage:

     And then, as he sauntered up Whitehall towards Charing Cross, with Robarts on his arm, he again pressed upon him the sale of that invaluable hunter, who was eating his head off his shoulders in the stable at Chaldicotes.

   • 1908, D. F. E. Sykes, Miriam: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills:

     Now Jim and I had found it necessary to buy a horse and cart, and the animal was eating its head off in a stable by the mill.

   • 1943, Stuart Palmer, The Puzzle of the Silver Persian:

     He knew that, only a few hours from London, the Hunt was cubbing over his ancestral and much-mortgaged acres, while his own horse ate its head off in a stable.

Usage notes

• The pronoun one refers back to the animal, not to its owner.