Putting food onto plates or bowls to serve, or (slang) spreading gossip or sharing scandalous stories about someone.
From Old English 'disc,' a plate or platter. The slang sense of 'dishing' (spreading gossip) likely came from the image of dishing out information the way you dish out food—serving it freely to others.
The phrase 'dish the dirt' shows how food-serving words became metaphors for spreading information, and this transformation happened because gossip and food-sharing were both social activities that brought groups together—our language reveals what cultures valued.
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