MEANING
To have a task, responsibility, or concern that you need to deal with.
Use it for
describing existing duties or commitments; explaining that someone is already busy; declining more work because of current responsibilities; distinguishing a full workload from unwillingness to helpNames duties or concerns someone already has to deal with; workload size is supplied by the quantity expression. Writing functions: Workload / Commitments. Semantic categories (by meaning): Workload / Commitments. Contexts: General conversation; Creative prose.
Words that belong together
- have a lot on your plate
- have too much on your plate
- have enough on your plate
On the page
She already has enough on her plate without supervising another project.
Once the appeal was settled, he had one less problem on his plate.
Word forms
- Base
- have something on your plate
Usage notes
Verbal idiom: have/has/had/having something on one’s plate. Quantity varies naturally: a lot, enough, too much, or more on one’s plate. Register: informal. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.