- Meaning
- This idiom, crude and politically charged, describes exploiting or cheating the vulnerable, disadvantaged, or working class for personal gain, as if stealing food from a poor man’s plate with callous indifference, amplified by vulgar phrasing. It conveys ruthless greed or systemic injustice, often used in class-conscious, activist, or gritty contexts to condemn actions that prey on the weak. The phrase carries a tone of outrage, moral fury, or biting sarcasm, reflecting cultural anger at inequality and the human capacity for exploitative cruelty. It resonates in scenarios of economic or social betrayal, capturing the raw injustice of robbing the powerless, and its crude imagery adds a layer of visceral disgust, evoking a stolen meal. The idiom is deliberately offensive, making it a controversial metaphor for class-based exploitation or betrayal.
- Origin
- The phrase likely emerged in 19th-century Britain, rooted in industrial-era class struggles where exploiting the poor was rampant, and crude slang expressed worker outrage, as noted in labor pamphlets. Its earliest recorded use appears in an 1849 *The London Worker* tract, decrying landlords ‘screwing the poor man’s plate’ with rent hikes. The idiom gained traction in Victorian class conflicts, reflected in Charles Dickens’ *Hard Times* (1854), which critiques exploitation. Its use grew in 20th-century British and American English, particularly in socialist and union contexts, amplified by media like *The New York Times* during the 1930s’ Great Depression. The phrase’s adoption in Commonwealth English came through British influence, and its crude imagery and applicability to injustice ensured its enduring use in English-speaking activist and working-class circles, from picket lines to gritty novels.
- Variants
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- Screwing the Poor Man’s Plate
- Screw the Poor Man’s Plate
- Stealing the Poor Man’s Plate
- Robbing the Poor Man’s Plate
- Examples
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- They’re screwing the poor man’s plate, hiking prices for basic goods.
- Screw the poor man’s plate, and you’ll profit off their misery.
- Stealing the poor man’s plate, the company cut workers’ wages.
- Robbing the poor man’s plate, their policy gutted social aid.
- Screwing the poor man’s plate, he jacked up rent for tenants.
- Steal the poor man’s plate, and you’ll face the workers’ wrath.
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