4

It's a quote from the movie "The Godfather II", Tom and Frankie's scene:

Frankie: Did my brother go back?

Tom: Yeah, don't worry.

Frankie: He's ten time tougher than me-- my brother. He's old fashioned.

Tom: He didn't want to go out for dinner. He just wanted to go straight home.

Frankie: That's my brother. There's nothing that could get him away from that two-meal town. He could have been big here, could've had his own family.

English is not my native language, BTW. I think "two-meal" is an adjective to "town", but I can't understand its meaning.

2
  • 1
    It refers to a town where they roll up the sidewalks so early, you can't even find a dinner. It was common for many small towns to close shop around 2 pm. It also points to an absence of saloons, hotels, and brothels. This would probably be the implication in The Godfather.
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Mar 20, 2018 at 16:30
  • Though you are right about 'two-meal' pre-modifying 'town', it is classed as an appositive noun. Commented Mar 21, 2018 at 0:24

1 Answer 1

4

A 'two meal' town is short of the usually expected three meals a day.

The expression is similar to another idiom which describes a town as being short of the expected number of horses :

A very small and unremarkable town that is typically regarded as dull or boring. I can't wait to graduate high school and get out of this boring, one-horse town!

Free Dictionary

Note that both expressions accept a certain quality to the town - the place is not utterly destitute. It just doesn't have enough to be an attractive prospect for anyone to stay there longer than is strictly necessary.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .