Ponerse tibio a
To get warm from something.
to stuff oneself with; **to stuff oneself with**; **to gorge oneself on**; **to pig out on**; **to binge on**; **to have one's fill of**; **to indulge in something**
Ponerse tibio a algo means to eat or drink a great deal of something, to stuff oneself with something, or to indulge heavily in something.
Nos pusimos tibios a comer.
We stuffed ourselves.
Se puso tibio a jamón.
He gorged himself on ham.
En la fiesta nos pusimos tibios de cerveza.
We drank loads of beer at the party.
Los niños se pusieron tibios a dulces.
The children stuffed themselves with sweets.
Se pusieron tibios a trabajar y acabaron agotados.
They worked themselves to exhaustion.
It is especially common with food and drink and is usually informal and humorous.
A common construction is:
Ponerse tibio a + sustantivo.
→ To stuff oneself with / to gorge oneself on something.
It can also be used with an infinitive:
Ponerse tibio a + infinitivo.
→ To do something excessively.
- eats a large quantity of food
- drinks a large quantity of alcohol
- indulges excessively in something
- spends a long time doing an enjoyable activity
The expression is based on the figurative use of tibio to describe someone who has had more than enough of something.
The adjective tibio appears to have developed a colloquial association with being satisfied or filled up, particularly after eating or drinking.
The expression belongs to a broader group of Spanish idioms in which a physical sensation is used to describe excessive consumption or indulgence.
The expression is especially common with food:
Nos pusimos tibios a comer.
This can simply mean:
We ate loads.
It does not necessarily imply that the person ate unpleasantly or irresponsibly. In many contexts it is playful and suggests that there was plenty of food and everyone enjoyed it.
It is also common with alcohol:
Se pusieron tibios de vino.
→ They drank loads of wine.
Spanish has a particularly rich collection of colloquial expressions for eating or drinking excessively:
- Ponerse tibio → eat or drink a lot.
- Ponerse ciego → consume excessively.
- Ponerse las botas → eat very well or indulge oneself.
- Darse un atracón → have a binge / eat excessively.
- Atiborrarse → stuff oneself.
They are often interchangeable, but each has its own degree of informality and imagery.
The preposition depends on the construction:
Ponerse tibio a comer.
Ponerse tibio de cerveza.
Ponerse tibio con algo.
Natural English normally uses a verb such as:
to stuff oneself
to gorge oneself
to pig out
rather than translating tibio literally.
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