lean and hungry look

Cultural  

1. A phrase from the play Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare. Caesar remarks, concerning one of the men conspiring against him, “Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look.” Caesar means that Cassius looks dangerously dissatisfied, as if he were starved for power.

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Example Sentences

Yond “senior official” has a lean and hungry look.

From The Wall Street Journal

The lean and hungry look that frightened Julius Caesar frightened our mothers too.

From BBC

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look.

From New York Times

While I look back fondly at the era of the Greenstreets and the Big Daddies, I will, when the election finally rolls around, be putting my trust in the other bloke, the guy with the lean and hungry look.

From Slate

While fat was where it was at for old Jules, when it came to skinny dudes, he was positively discriminatory: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.

From Slate