What does “wegwerken” mean in Dutch?
Wat en hoeveel eet een olifant per dag?
A2 Dutch listening practice · Dutch · Picked for people who know a little
Wegwerken literally means “to work away,” but in everyday Dutch it’s the verb you reach for when describing someone plowing through a large quantity of food. Een hele pizza wegwerken = polish off a whole pizza. The verb implies effort plus completion: not just eating, but getting through it. It’s the closest Dutch comes to English “demolish” or “wolf down” without the violent imagery. The same verb works for clearing email, paperwork, or a customer queue.
In this educational clip about elephants, the narrator says “zo werkt een Afrikaanse olifant dagelijks zo’n 200 kilo aan voedsel weg” (“an African elephant gets through about 200 kilos of food a day”). 200 kilos. Wegwerken indeed.
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Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-NL 2014 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Dutch nature documentaries (NPO Zapp’s *De Buitendienst, Het Klokhuis*)
- ▸In Flemish cooking TV when judges describe big appetites (*Mijn Pop-Up Restaurant, Komen Eten*)
- ▸In Dutch slice-of-life vlogs about meal challenges (Anna Nooshin, Enzo Knol, Monica Geuze)
- ▸In Dutch business writing about clearing backlogs (Het Financieele Dagblad, NRC, De Volkskrant)