Meaning of Idiom ‘Egg On’
To egg on means to urge, dare, or encourage someone to do something that is usually foolish, dangerous, silly, mischievous, or embarrassing.
Usage Notes
A pronoun (him, her, them, me) or a name can be inserted between ‘egg’ and ‘on’ or used after egg on.
John egged Timmy on Timmy to climb the tree.
John egged on Timmy to climb the tree.
Sentence Examples
“His friends egged him on to get on stage and do his stand-up routine.”
“Shelly played hookey from school because her friend egged her on.”
“The witness was egged on by the chairman of the committee to lie about his status within the company.”
“She drank too many beers and, egged on by a cheering crowd, climbed on a table and danced.”
“Impressionable teen boys are easily egged on to take part in inappropriate behavior, sometimes not knowing how wrong their behavior really is.”
Origin
This idiom first appeared in print in Thomas Drant’s translation of the Roman poet Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) in 1566: “Ile egge them on to speake some thying, whiche spoken may repent them.”
To egg on has nothing to do with chickens or eggs. Instead, it comes from the verb eggede, which appeared in English in approximately 1200. Eggede was a vatiation of ‘edge’ or ‘urge’ as in to urge or edge someone to do something. Eggede was derived from the Old Norse word ‘eddja‘ (eggja), meaning to incite or provoke.
