It would be trespassing on their hospitality ....

[sb70012]

trespass on something = to unfairly use more than you should of someone else's time, help etc for your own advantage.
It would be trespassing on their hospitality to accept any more from them.

Longman Dictionary

Hello,
I can't see why is [hospitality] in the above sentence. It doesn't make sense there. I know the meaning of 'hospitality' but I can't understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole. [hospitality] makes me confused.
Would you please be kind enough to clarify the meaning of the whole sentence to me?

Thank you.

 

[bennymix]

It's a kind of metaphor. Hospitality is treated as if it's one's house or property. This is abused or infringed upon. This is, in a way, like going onto someone's property, unauthorized and unwanted.

The sentence It would be trespassing on their hospitality to accept any more from them.

can be rephrased: It would be an abuse of their offer (whatever they offer), to take any more (of whatever) from them.

If I'm very busy and offer you an hour, and you come to my office and take two hours, you have, as it were, 'trespassed' [infringed on] on my kindness or hospitality.

 

[sb70012]

Understood. Many thanks.

 

[e2efour]

To trespass on their hospitality here means to take advantage of their hospitality, which is a much more common phrase.

To give an example, if you have nowhere to stay and a friend says you stay in his house for a week, you would be abusing or taking advantage of his hospitality if you stayed for two weeks.

 

[Parla]

We wouldn't use "trespass" this way; in my opinion, it was a very poor example. Try other dictionaries.

 

[bennymix]

sb, here is the dictionary entry (M-W unabr) :

1b : an unwarranted infringement

<never worried about their … trespass on generosity — Audrey Barker>

 

[wandle]

trespass on something = to unfairly use more than you should of someone else's time, help etc for your own advantage.
It would be trespassing on their hospitality to accept any more from them.

That example seems a good one to me. If a couple are visiting or staying with friends, and the hosts are generous to the guests, and if one of the guests is inclined to accept everything offered, his or her partner might say:
'No, we mustn't. It would be trespassing on their hospitality to accept any more from them.'

'Hospitality' here means the generous attitude of the hosts. Part of the politeness of hosts is to offer generously, even more than expected: part of the politeness of guests is to decline, beyond a certain point.