swallow things whole

[michifanta]

A tendency to "swallow things whole" i.e. to be the sucker who is born every minute.

Ho trovato questa frase in un testo di psicologia ma non capisco l'espressione tra virgolette. È un'espressione idiomatica? proverbiale? Tanto meno il riferimento al "sucker"...

grazie!

 

[Paulfromitaly]

Hai cercato cosa significa sucker?

http://www.wordreference.com/enit/sucker

 

[rrose17]

Significa credulone.
Barnum or Bailey from Barnum and Bailey Circus (very well known circus) said "there's a sucker born every minute." meaning there's always someone, in the crowd, who is very gullible and will believe anything you tell them. To be a sucker is to fall for a trick. To swallow someone's story means you believe it even though it's false. To swallow it whole means you believe the whole thing, in other words you are very gullible.