英和和英

語源

from the sense of "meat" that refers negatively to people as in meat puppet (This etymology is missing または incomplete. Please add to it, または discuss it at the 語源 scriptorium. Particularly: “please further elaborate”)

名詞

room meat (uncountable)

1. (informal) Person(s) present in a passive way or to make up the numbers; bystander(s).

   There is a scene in the film In The Loop where an MP is asked to attend an important meeting. But as he enters the room he is warned, with some menace, to keep his mouth shut tight. "What?", he asks, "You've got me here as room meat?"

   • 2012 April 23, Jonathan Wolff, “Lecturers, are you talking to 'room meat'?”, in (Please provide the book title または journal name)‎^[1]:

     How much of our lives as academics is spent as room meat: turning up to things because it would look bad if the numbers were small, or just because we are meant to be there?