chew the meat and spit out the bones

chew the meat and spit out the bones

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

chew the meat and spit out the bones

1. (idiomatic) To take in a great deal of information and selectively disregard some of it as invalid or inapplicable
   • 2002, A. Frank Goepel, A Realm Without Rules, page 116:

     Do not swallow every story that is told. There may be a grain of truth somewhere in all the myths, but chew the meat and spit out the bones.

See also

• separate the wheat from the chaff