“Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew!”

his is a Metaphorical Aphorism is almost always used to give the advice that one:  Should not take on more responsibility than one can handle;  should not try to do more than one can;  should get involved in something that one may not be ready for.

t should be obvious that the Metaphorical comes from the situation of someone trying to put too much food in their mouth at one time.  If you have ever done that, then you know that if you have no space to move the food around in your mouth — then it is very difficult to actually break it down.

n such a case a person may actually need to spit the food out and take a smaller bite.  Otherwise — it will simply be impossible to manage.  And in a worst case scenario — one could actually choke on the food.

lthough this phrase can be used as advice to tell someone not to get involved in something that they are not ready for — it is, quite-often, use AFTER the fact to try to patronistically chastise the person for something they did which got them into a little bit of touble.