grin like a mule eating briars
A wonderfully vivid American Southern simile for someone wearing an enormous, unstoppable grin — the kind that spreads across the whole face and refuses to quit no matter the circumstances.
Definitions
A wonderfully vivid American Southern simile for someone wearing an enormous, unstoppable grin — the kind that spreads across the whole face and refuses to quit no matter the circumstances. The image comes from the sight of a mule working its way through a thorny briar patch, lips pulled back wide to avoid the spines, which looks exactly like a huge goofy smile. It's affectionate, rustic, and almost impossible to say without smiling yourself.
When they told him he'd won, he just stood there grinning like a mule eating briars, not saying a single word.
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(US, simile, colloquial) To grin very widely.
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