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  What it means

  Literally “to have eaten up all the wisdom,” this idiom describes someone who thinks they know everything — an insufferable know-it-all who believes they have a monopoly on intelligence and good judgment. The image is of someone gobbling up all the world’s wisdom, leaving none for others. It is always used ironically or critically to mock someone’s arrogance or overconfidence.

  Vocabulary

  • pozjadać — to have eaten up (perfective, distributive — eating everything thoroughly)
  • wszystkie — all (accusative plural of wszystek)
  • rozumy — wisdoms, wits (accusative plural of rozum)
  • rozum — reason, wisdom, wits, mind

  Grammar note

  Pozjadać is a perfective verb with a distributive prefix po-, indicating that the action has been completed thoroughly and in full — every last piece of wisdom has been consumed. Rozumy is an unusual plural of rozum (normally uncountable), used here for comic and rhetorical effect. The accusative plural wszystkie rozumy serves as the direct object.

  Cultural context

  This is a common, mildly sarcastic phrase used across all ages and registers. It typically appears in phrases like Myślisz, że pozjadałeś wszystkie rozumy? (Do you think you've eaten up all the wisdom? — said to a know-it-all). The English equivalents include 'to think one knows it all,' 'a know-it-all,' or 'to have all the answers.'

  Intermediate

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