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make mincemeat of

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make mincemeat (out) of someone

 and make hamburger (out) of someone

Fig. to beat or pound someone or something; to treat someone or something roughly. (As if chopping someone up.) If you don't behave, I'll make mincemeat out of you. Do you want Fred to make hamburger out of you?

See also: make, mincemeat, of

make mincemeat (out) of somebody/something

to destroy or defeat someone or something completely A good lawyer would have made mincemeat of them in court.

Etymology: from the literal meaning of mincemeat (a food in which different things are cut up into very small pieces)

See also: make, mincemeat, of

make mincemeat of somebody

  (informal)

to defeat someone very easily A good lawyer would have made mincemeat of them in court.

See also: make, mincemeat, of

make mincemeat of

Also, make hamburger of. Thrash, beat decisively, as in That bully will make mincemeat of my son, or The other team will make hamburger out of us. This idiom alludes to finely chopping up meat. The first term dates from about 1700, the variant from the first half of the 1900s.

See also: make, mincemeat, of

make mincemeat of

Slang

To destroy utterly: made mincemeat of the opponent's argument.

See also: make, mincemeat, of