fill up on

Meaning

This expression means to eat or drink so much of a specific food that you are no longer hungry for other things. It is frequently used as a warning not to eat too many heavy appetizers or snacks before a main meal.

Examples

• Don't fill up on bread before the main course arrives.

  Don't fill up on bread before the main course arrives.

• The kids filled up on chips and barely touched their dinner.

  The kids filled up on chips and barely touched their dinner.

• I try not to fill up on water while I'm eating a big meal.

  I try not to fill up on water while I'm eating a big meal.

• It's easy to fill up on snacks when you're studying all day.

  It's easy to fill up on snacks when you're studying all day.

• We filled up on appetizers, so we had to take our entrees home.

  We filled up on appetizers, so we had to take our entrees home.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ Don't fill up of snacks before dinner.

  ✓ Don't fill up on snacks before dinner.

  The correct preposition to use with this phrasal verb is 'on', not 'of' or 'with'.

• ✗ I filled up myself on bread.

  ✓ I filled up on bread.

  'Fill up on' does not require a reflexive pronoun (like 'myself' or 'yourself') to describe getting full on food.

Related Expressions

Practice

• If you ___ those cookies now, you won't want any dinner.

  💡 Eat too much of.

  Show answer

  fill up on

• I accidentally ___ the free bread and couldn't finish my steak.

  💡 Past tense of fill up on.

  Show answer

  filled up on