Meaning
To have so many tasks, responsibilities or problems to deal with that you cannot comfortably take on anything more. The image is a dinner plate already loaded with food: everything on it must be finished before you can accept another helping. Most often used to decline extra work without sounding unhelpful. Frequently softened as enough on my plate or quite a lot on my plate. The two Ammer references disagree mildly on the decade; both agree on the early-twentieth-century American dinner-plate metaphor. Regional use: American origin; now used throughout the English-speaking world.
Origin
An American idiom of the early twentieth century built on the loaded dinner plate. Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches says the term originated in the 1920s and transferred the image of an overcrowded dinner plate to a very full agenda - verified on the Farlex page - and quotes R. Simons, Houseboat Killing (1959): 'I'll leave you at it. I've got plenty on my plate at the moment.' Her American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms dates the transfer to the first half of the 1900s and records my plate is full and have a full plate from the same period; the two books differ only on the decade. The underlying noun is far older: the OED's factsheet records plate from before 1275, with food-and-cooking senses in Middle English.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- have a full plate
- have enough on one's plate
- my plate is full
Usage Examples
- I would love to help with the appeal, but I have a lot on my plate this month.
- With the new baby and the house move, they have quite enough on their plate without a puppy.
- The chair's plate was already full when the audit letter arrived.