Idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.
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Looking for an idiom
I am trying to find idioms that could express "looking for something" and "trying to find something in a room full of mess". One that I could find was "hunt high and low" but for some reason I don't ...
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4answers
3k views
What does “everything's gone pear-shaped” mean?
I've recently heard this phrase spoken twice on a British television show, and I assume it means something along the lines of, "everything's fallen apart," generally meaning, things are bad right now. ...
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4answers
935 views
Why do we say that an obscene joke is “off-color”?
Why do we say that an obscene joke is "off-color"? Is a G-rated joke "on-color"? What color? When and how did this idiomatic expression come from?
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5answers
799 views
What is the origin of idiom “Keep your hair on”?
I had a conversation with a coworker and he told me to keep my hair on. My first understanding of the idiom was that he will do something so fast that, if I was wearing a wig or something it will fly ...
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3answers
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Differences among expression and idiom, as well as colloquial and vernacular
Expression and idiom are used interchangeably, and so are colloquial and vernacular; albeit incorrectly. Please advise on differences in meaning and recommend a proper usage.
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5answers
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What does “fly by the seat of one's pants” mean?
Reading a book, I came across an expression I really can't parse.
For some developers, the invocation of
the word plan is cause for alarm.
Endless meetings with pointy-haired
bosses creating ...
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2answers
3k views
How did the phrase “are you nuts” come about?
What is the connection between "nut" and the character? How was the phrase "are you nuts?" used at first?
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5answers
811 views
Cold turkey as expression
I've discovered a expression : to go cold turkey, meaning something like feeling bad because you have taken drugs and you need to take more. I wonder if another verb rather than go can be used ...
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3answers
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Which is correct: coming down the “pike” or “pipe”?
Is the expression "coming down the pike" or "coming down the pipe"? I've always used pike, but I've heard a few people use pipe recently. I can see how both could make sense, but which is correct?
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1answer
43 views
Origin of the term “eating your own dog food”
I'm trying to find the first usage of the term "eating your own dogfood", as a reference to companies, especially software companies, using their own products in house in order to more effectively ...
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3answers
5k views
Origin of “More X than you can shake a stick at”
What is the origin of the phrase "more X than you can shake a stick at"?
Every website I've seen on this basically says the same thing (e.g., http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha2.htm):
Recorded ...
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1answer
77 views
Origin of dead giveaway [duplicate]
I was answering a question at ELL and used the phrase "dead giveaway" and thought that it might not be clear to a non-native speaker. This thought lead me to wonder, where did we get that phrase. I ...
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1answer
38 views
Use of “many good wishes 'to carry with you'”
In "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" there is two times this phrase: "many good wishes to carry with you":
And the Winkies gave them three cheers and many good wishes to carry with them.
But he at once ...
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3answers
72 views
What is the origin/meaning of “wheelbarrow full of frogs”
What is the origin/meaning of "wheelbarrow full of frogs"
I've heard this phrase many times but am unsure as to exactly what it means.
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1answer
92 views
Is ‘on a tear’ unpopular idiom?
I was drawn to the phrase, ‘on a tear’ that I heard in audio in this week’s Barron’s magazine (June 6) reporting the good sales and profit performance of U.S. sneaker chain, Foot Locker:
It says:
...
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1answer
113 views
Meaning of “as it was” in context
What does it mean "as it was" in this context?
She was awakened by a shock, so sudden and severe that if Dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt. As it was, the jar ...
3
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1answer
94 views
“22 Acacia Avenue” British idiom
What is the meaning of this British idiom?
I was watching BBC's Top Gear and the presenters were cracking jokes about people who live in the 22 of the avenues. And that the people who live there like ...
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2answers
5k views
What alternative would you suggest to “in/with regard(s?) to”?
I see in many of the "corporate emails" I receive the expression: "in regard to".
Sometimes, it is also written "in regards to".
First, to be sure:
"in regards to" (with an extra 's') is ...
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3answers
4k views
Is it “a tough row to hoe?”, or “a tough road to hold?”
Is it an old farming metaphor, or a military saying? Where did this(these) saying(s) originate?
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1answer
121 views
Origin of “to have a cow”
The phrase "to have a cow" is defined as "to be very worried, upset, or angry about something" in Free Dictionary Online.
Other sources also define it to mean to react very strongly and emotionally. ...
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2answers
72 views
'too dangerous to let live' or 'too dangerous to be let live'?
I was writing something down that came to me in a passing while I was watching TV, and I found myself discombobulated with the way one should phrase the notion of letting someone do something in the ...
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0answers
44 views
Idioms for strongly disagreeing to the point of seeming a lie [closed]
I was thinking today about the term "hogwash", which I would define as an idiomatic term meaning something along the lines of "I disagree so strongly, I suspect you may be lying". This is also the ...
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4answers
3k views
Meaning of the phrase “squeeze water from a stone”
What does the phrase "(to) squeeze water from a stone" mean?
Have you ever squeezed water from a stone?
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4answers
3k views
Who were the 'pros from Dover'?
I was reading Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy this morning, and he compares his characters to the 'pros from Dover'.
This was a phrase that I also remember hearing in the movie M*A*S*H - so it seems to be ...
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4answers
668 views
What does it mean - “When X does Y, God kills Z”? [closed]
I've come across many pages, articles and texts which say something like
When X does Y, God kills a kitten
When X happens, God kills an elephant
Like
here - God kills a pigeon
here - God kills ...
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3answers
703 views
What does “suck a salt grain off a beach” mean?
In association with my question of the usage of “blood-dimmed (flood /tragedy) in Maureen Dowd’s article in New York Times- ...
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1answer
476 views
Is it all right to use “in hopes of” to mean “with the aim of”?
Recently I browsed through the definition of hope in New Oxford American Dictionary (provided by Apple in the dictionary app) to double confirm with its usage as I answered a word-choice question and ...
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1answer
140 views
What does 'trout-shouldered' mean?
In an episode of the television show Archer one character refers to another as being "trout-shouldered."
“This pathetic, trout-shouldered excuse for a boom operator is Chet Manly."
What might this ...
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1answer
62 views
“She hasn't said but a few words to me…” or “She has said but a few words to me…”?
"She hasn't said but a few words to me since last winter."
or
"She has said but a few words to me since last winter."
Which of these is right?
I think the latter is heard more often, but ...
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1answer
49 views
What is the meaning of “pull in the channel”? [closed]
Could you tell me the meaning of "pull in the channel" or "bring in the channel"?
I looked up these words in some dictionaries, but I found no suitable meaning.
Do these mean "change the channel"?
4
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1answer
54 views
How did “Captain” become a term for a businessman who employed prison labor?
My great grandfather, who owned a small railroad and lumber business in central Georgia after the Civil War, was referred to frequently as "Captain." I learned that that was not a military rank, but ...
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8answers
1k views
Is the phrase “I just sucked it out of my thumb” used in American English?
I was born and raised in South Africa. We frequently used the term "to suck out of one's thumb", implying that an answer was just a wild guess or the notion had no evidence but was rather just ...
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1answer
104 views
Meaning of “watch your six”
What does "watch your six" mean?
Does it mean "watch your back", like in a dangerous area?
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1answer
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“The above technique is a double-edged sword” [duplicate]
In our native language, we say this "The above technique is a double-edged sword".
Is it appropriate to say it in English? If not, what is the nice way to express the same meaning?
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1answer
62 views
Are there other variations of “slow and steady wins the race”? [closed]
We know the hare and tortoise story but are there other variants of "slow and steady wins the race"?
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2answers
44 views
Is it customary to omit or replace ‘head’ with ‘x-year / mile/ pound’ in the idiom “have a head start on sb” when the advantage should be quantified?
There is the following statement in Jeffery Archer’s fiction “The Fourth Estate,” of which I admit I’m a terribly slow reader:
“The tactics made it possible for Armstrong Communication to declare ...
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4answers
1k views
Origin of “Put up your dukes”
This link claims that one cannot be sure of origin of this phrase. Three explanations are given here, but they are not very convincing (I am not a native speaker).
In one of our newspapers, ...
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6answers
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Origin of the term 'country mile'?
A 'country mile' is a term used casually in some areas of the English-speaking world to refer to a very great distance, but what's the origin of the term? Obviously 'mile' refers to what could be ...
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2answers
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What is the difference between “each to one’s own,” and “a law unto-oneself”? Are they totally different idioms?
I came across two different idioms, “a law untothemselves” and “each to his own” in the scene then British Army Captain, later a global media tycoon, Dick Armstrong, plotting to rob Julius Hahn, a ...
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0answers
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Where did the idiom “cold turkey” originate from? [duplicate]
I was listening to a radio program about addiction and it occurred to me the strangeness of the idiom "cold turkey", what is the etymology of the phrase and where did it originate from?
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1answer
111 views
What does 'What kind of mischief are you up to?' mean?
One of my US users asked the following questions when she got information about my resignation from my manager.
What is this rumor I hear? What kind of mischief are you up to?
I am not sure ...
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3answers
9k views
What does “if and when” mean, and is it the same as “when and if”?
Rather than trying to describe my beef with this idiom, I will give a bunch of successively objectionable examples. None of these are taken from real life.
As I see it, if (and when) both "if" and ...
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2answers
561 views
What does “It's not me, it's you?” mean in the phrase, “So why are more of us telling our banks, “It's not me, it's you?”
The article of Time magazine (September 13) titled, “America to Banks: We’re just not that into you” begins with the following lines:
“The number of Americans who have cut the cord with mainstream ...
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4answers
2k views
What does the expression 'Do the fish' mean?
I just recently heard this expression and couldn't quite figure out its meaning from the context, unless it means something like "take the bait."
Is this a common expression? Is it perhaps an ...
15
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4answers
4k views
“On the other hand” without the first hand
I have been criticized by colleagues in the past for using "on the other hand" as an alternative to "however" at the beginning of a sentence, because they said that you could only use it if a previous ...
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1answer
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Meaning of “in a look of a frame of reference” [closed]
Does "in a look of a frame of reference" mean "regarding to sth."? Sorry, unfortunately I couldn't find a simple example.
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1answer
154 views
What does ‘play the pill’ mean?
There was the following sentence in Maureen Dowd’s article titled “Taxing Times for Obama” in the New York Times May 18 issue. - ...
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1answer
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What does it mean “a piece of schlock”? [closed]
What does a piece of schlock mean in the following phrase?
"You aren't in this game to write a piece of schlock."
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2answers
56 views
An idiom for “going with the most likely option”
What's an idiom for the action of going for the most likely / most appropriate option? I had been saying "placing my bets with _" but it turns out that doesn't exist :D Must have got it from "hedge ...
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2answers
525 views
Meaning of “excited much”, “stalker much”
What does 'excited much' or 'stalker much' mean exactly, and which context are they used in? I don't get the usage of much after a noun or adjective. I often see this construction in comments, for ...
