My mom (who is almost 80) always used the phrase “putting the big pot into the little pot” to describe an event where you went over the top with the details or the arrangements. As a “low church” Episcopalian, she would often say that the minister had “put the big pot into the little pot” if the service had too much incense or bells or chanting or processing or other such ceremony. She sometimes would also use it in referring to her mother’s lavish cocktail parties.

I’m wondering about the differences between this definition and the definition Grant used in his “slang this” segment.

Thanks for that addition, Peggy. What part of the country is your mother from?

Marc, it’s about the impossibility of imagining a meal for sixteen people in a pot that holds only enough for six. Something like feeding the multitudes from a single fish and a single loaf.