I came across a dialog between two people struggling on a cutting the line situation. Here is the dialogue:
A: Hey man, the end of the line is over there.
B: Yeah…
A: No seriously, I was here first, and you can’t cut in
the line like this.
B: Says who?
A: I do!
B: So sue me!
A: Alright…that’s it….(and here they start to punch each other!!!)
When I looked it up in my dictionary, it says that the meaning of sue is to make a legal claim against someone because they have harmed you in some way.
But I'm pretty sure that the sue me expression has a different meaning in this context.
Please help me out!
Best Answer
Actually "sue me" means exactly what your dictionary says. It's kind of "fighting words" that imply the speaker does not apologize for his actions, and the only option the other guy has is to take him to court.
Which is silly, of course, because you can't sue someone for cutting into a line (or, as the British say, a queue). So in your example the offended person takes the next more extreme available option, which is to start a fight.
"Sue me" is actually relatively polite. There are many less polite options:
And the list goes downhill from there.