2023-08-21 Drip feed – The English We Speak

Introduction

Learn a phrase about giving information little by little. You may have heard it used in a medical context, but we explain its wider use.

Transcript

Neil
Welcome to The English We Speak with me, Neil…

Jiaying
….and me, Jiaying.

Neil
We’re explaining the phrase ‘drip feed’. It can be used to describe giving something in small amounts – little by little – rather than all at once.

Jiaying
‘Drip feed’. Hmm, I know about this in a medical context. It’s a way of feeding liquid medicine along a tube into someone’s body, a drop at a time. The equipment is called ‘a drip’ and the action of doing this is to drip feed.

Neil
Very good! That’s right. Drip feed is the action of doing this, so it’s a verb. But we can ‘drip feed’ in a wider context too. If we give information about something just one fact at a time, we can say we are drip feeding the information.

Jiaying
Ah yes! Film companies sometimes do this. They drip feed clips of a new film to get everyone interested and excited about the launch of a new movie.

Neil
They do! It’s a constant feed of information but in small amounts. But don’t worry, I won’t drip feed you these examples, you can have them all at once!

Examples
We need to drip feed money into our savings account so we can minimise the risks of the stock market.

The singer drip fed some of her best songs onto her website to create a buzz about her forthcoming new album.

Our boss was drip feeding us details of the new project, so we weren’t overloaded with information all at once.

Jiaying
In this The English We Speak, we’re looking at the phrase ‘drip feed’. It describes the constant feed of information but in small amounts.

Neil
So, talking of the movies. I went to see that new action film last night.

Jiaying
Was it good?

Neil
Yes, very.

Jiaying
Because…?

Neil
Because of the main actor.

Jiaying
And what was special about him? Actually, don’t bother drip feeding me the information, Neil – I’ll go and see it myself.

Neil
As it was so good, I might join you and watch it again – and then I can drip feed you popcorn at the same time! Bye for now.

Jiaying
Bye.