What does the saying "the grass is greener on the other side" mean?

[duragezic]

 

[ohtwell]

It means that regardless of how good you have it someone always has it better.


: ) Amanda

 

[Red Dawn]

It mean the buds your nieghbor grows are better than yours

 

[Shantanu]

It means that something you don't have may seem more appealing than something you do have.

With grass, this statement is literally true. When you look down at a patch of grass that you're standing on, you'll see some of the dirt. This will make the grass seem sparse. But when you look off in the distance, the grass seems greener, because all you see are the blades. Back in the day, this was advice that was given to novice shephards.

Today, it's used as an idiom.

 

[fatbaby]

i thought it meant look toward the brighter side of things! (i r fob)

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

it means that you'll always perceive something/someone else to be better, even if they aren't.
basically, no matter what side of the "fence" you are on, the other side will always look better

 

[habib89]

yes

 

[StageLeft]

It's the reason you break up with your girlfriend. And then you get together with her. And then break up again. And then get together again. What you don't have always seems better than it is and what you used to have and no longer have tends to hold an unusually positive place in your memory.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

Originally posted by: Shantanu
It means that something you don't have may seem more appealing that something you do have.

With grass, this statement is literally true. When you look down at a patch of grass that you're standing on, you'll see some of the dirt. This will make the grass seem sparse. But when you look off in the distance, the grass seems greener, because all you see are the blades. Back in the day, this was advice that was given to novice shephards.

Today, it's used as an idiom.

you nailed it spot-on, a lot better explanation than mine

 

[Iron Woode]

Ah, but, where did the saying originate from?

 

[tweakmm]

if only you understood the joke, your life would have purpose

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

It means people have to try and poke their heads through the fence to eat instead of just grazing in the pasture. Or maybe that's cows.

 

[kranky]

The saying is usually: "The grass always looks greener on the other side."

Might be easier to understand that way. Not that it is greener, just that it looks that way.

I hear that saying a lot at work, because we hire a lot of people who are right out of school. After a couple years they imagine that our company sucks because their friends who work in other places keep pointing out things they get at their company that the people here don't get. Then they quit.

And about two years later, many of them come back. They didn't realize that all the things they thought they were missing out on didn't exist at every company. One place might have free soft drinks. Another might have a dry cleaning pickup/delivery service. Or another might have a better exercise room. They thought every place offered all of that stuff and more, but it wasn't true. When they come back, they get a chorus of "grass looked greener" for a couple weeks.

 

[iamme]

Your neighbor uses better fertilizer than you...

 

[Sealy]

The grass may be greener on the other side, but you still have to mow it!

 

[Blieb]

It means someone elses sh!t smells better than your sh!t.

 

[amnesiac]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
It's the reason you break up with your girlfriend. And then you get together with her. And then break up again. And then get together again. What you don't have always seems better than it is and what you used to have and no longer have tends to hold an unusually positive place in your memory.

I claim exemption to that, Skoorb. I'm too smart to get that p**sy whipped.