Questions tagged [idioms]
Idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Use [idiom-requests] if you are searching for an idiom with a particular meaning.
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Do brides in church weddings go up the aisle toward the altar or down the aisle toward the altar?
Nigel Rees, The Cassell Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1987) has this entry regarding the question "WHY DO WE SAY ... BRIDES GO UP THE AISLE?"
Sir Thomas Bazley fired off a letter ...
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What "On your approach" means in this context? [closed]
I've playing a game called gta san andreas and I've ran into this phrase
Hey carl
you gotta stay nice and low on your approach or you pop up on the
radar
And two questions crossed my mind that is:
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Idioms or expressions defining either getting paid fully or being appreciated
I am looking for a common English expression/idiom that defines a situation below:
I have done some work for someone, and in return, they are not going to pay me the full payment. Then I will tell ...
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Is Weasel Poo on a Door Knob a Recognised Expression? [duplicate]
The heading says it all. I have seen the above expression (or a few variants) used to describe something smooth, whether a person, or a literal surface. An example,
When it comes to women, Alex is ...
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What is the "shorthand" (or colloquialism) to say "anything in order not to do something/this or that"?
Can't remember for the life of me rn and googling was of no help, can someone help me out?
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I've got my work cut out for me. Origin, meaning, negation by sarcasm?
The phrase "I've got my work cut out for me" I have until now mistaken to mean: "The work that I have to do is largely completed (due to efforts by others beforehand), and only need to do a little bit ...
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What's the difference between "case by case" and "case to case"?
What's the difference between "case by case" and "case to case"?
I often hear the former from my Japanese students. When I asked them where they got the phrase, they always say they learned it from ...
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Alternatives to "Sleep in the bed you made" [duplicate]
I seem to recall one having something to do with the "hole you dug" but maybe I made that up.
Either way, I'm interested in any other expressions of this form. And to clarify the expression means ...
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What is the meaning of "limpin' to the barn"?
I was watching an episode of Family Guy and came across this expression:
Peter Griffin: Now stay tuned for whatever FOX is limpin' to the barn with.
(Emphasis added)
It was said at the end of the ...
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"To kill a fly with a..."?
I seem to recall that there is an expression for when you are throwing something too big at a particular challenge: "To kill a fly with a..."? Or am I way off here?
Edit: maybe it's not a fly after ...
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Meaning of "four into a ten stretch"?
There's a Netflix series called "The Gentlemen". The following dialogue takes place in it.
Man: "So I hear your dad's caught a nasty cold. How long's he got left?"
Woman: "He'...
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Working vs walking on both sides of the street
Dictionary.com renders "work both sides of the street" as:
To take two contrary positions at once; have it both ways
Similarly, idiom.thefreedictionary.com has "work both sides of the street" as:
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Where did Shakespeare get 'milk of human kindness' from?
In Shakespeare's 1606 play "Macbeth" the titular character is filled with ambition to become king. His wife, Lady Macbeth, says to him:
Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk ...
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What is the origin of the idiom "with all the bells and whistles"?
No major dictionary website carries the origin of this proverb. Some blogs speculate that it comes from a locomotive usage. In the days of the steam engine, engines would be equipped with bells and ...
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The meaning of "scoots" as noun in Irish slang
In the second season, episode 4 of Derry Girls, in the last two minutes, the girls are caught trying to get rid of 'happy' scones, flushing them through the toilet, which gets clogged. In the next ...
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What does "I've flipped through the brochure" mean in this sentence?
I've watched a Louis CK stand up comedy, and am wondering what he meant by "I've flipped through the brochure"?
“I like life. You know how much I do? I have never killed myself,
that’s how much I ...
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Synonyms for the idea of "magic in the air", or something intangible?
I'm looking for a more descriptive choice of words to evoke the sense of "magic in the air", or "something in the water", something intangible, hard to place, etc, to describe a phenomenon that is ...
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Idiom about something being very different
I need an idiom for two things being very different in amount (price) for negotiating.
I’m trying to remember something along the lines of moon and ground/sky and ground, but I can’t remember the ...
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What is the origin of "don't punch a gift horse in the mouth"?
I had always thought that the phrase was "don't look...", but my friend insists that it is "don't punch..." and there are a non-zero number of web search results showing usage of ...
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Positive version of 'A miss is as good as a mile'
If some quality can be quantified where there's some threshold value that has a significance, then, no matter how close you are under that threshold, the idiom 'A miss is as good as a mile' applies. ...
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Short word (thesaurus) for "remaining time before death"
Is there any short word(s) for "remaining time before death"?
something like "remaining lifespan" or something shorter than "lifetime left"
or something like "lifespan minus age" or "deadline minus ...
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A man of many talents/ the man of many talents
Can I use the article the with the idiom “man of many talents” if I want to emphasise that it refers to just a specific person and not speaking generally? For instance: “You’re the man of many talents”...
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The "wrought /wreaked havoc" misunderstanding
According to the American Heritage Dictionary:
the past tense and past participle of the verb to wreak is wreaked, not wrought, which is an alternative past tense and past participle of work.
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What is a word/ expression for a cut down said with a grin?
When someone is grinning at you while cutting you down. A snide comment is the best I have found. Or cheshire cat grin. There has to be a better word for this common occurrence.
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Synonyms for "walking on thin ice"
It's tough to find synonyms for whole phrases as opposed to single words. I'm trying to think of at least a couple for "walking on thin ice." So far the only one I've come up with is "playing a ...
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Is "taking liberties with something" always disapproving?
The expression "to take liberties with something" are defined by different dictionaries as follows:
to make important and unreasonable changes to something, especially a
book (Oxford ...
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Idiom/phrase for; something so explosively life changing/profound that it leaves you speechless [duplicate]
I found a few that came kind of close but I'm looking for something tht essentially combines the definitions of Epochal Momentum, Red/Scarlett Letter, & Magnum Opus. But it has a lot more of a ...
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What does this split subject phrase, "it might all have started", imply?
A well-known British writer has this:
[to question] how it might all have started
To my non-native English speaker ear this sounds a bit off; I'd have said
[to question] how it all might have ...
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What is the gender-neutral way of saying “gentlemen’s agreement”?
How can we refer to a gentlemen's agreement in a gender-neutral way in English?
In Spanish we use palabra de honor meaning “word of honor”, which carries no assumption about anyone’s sex.
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A word that means "presenting something without context"
I think there is a word that means something is presented or said without context, like a statement that appears random. "Leftfield statement" comes close, but I think there's something more concise.
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Crust and crumb [closed]
" Crust and crumb " is the title of an 1895 picture " toy " book in the Montgomery Ward catalog. The title feels like an idiom. I welcome input.
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"[Swear word] this for a game of soldiers"
There is an idiom that seems to be distinctly British: "---- this/that for a game of soldiers" where the dashes are replaced with various swear words. For example: "Sod this for a game ...
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What is the origin of "take one's medicine"? [closed]
I would really like to know where the idiom "take one's medicine" comes from. At first l thought it was another version of taste of their own medicine, but I found that these two have ...
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Idiom for model organism / prototypical example / "MNIST of X"
I'm looking for idioms or phrases conveying something similar to one of the following:
a toy example on which practitioners of X usually test a new method first, as it's expected that if a method ...
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How far (technically) is a "stone's throw?"
A "stone's throw" means a short distance.
Questions:
(1) How far--technically-- is a stone's throw in terms of its usage?
(i.e., Can you use it for a few feet as well as a mile away?)
(2) Is it ...
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Is there an idiom that corresponds to the Hungarian expression "fall off the other side of the horse"?
There's a Hungarian phrase that can be literally translated as something like "fall off the other side of the horse". (The literal implication is either that instead of falling off this side of the ...
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looking for a correct/ idiomatic phrase
Context: A recent meeting between Chinese and American Foreign affairs bosses in Munich.
Original:
双方就开展人文交流，便利人员往来交换了意见。王毅敦促美方停止无端滋扰盘查中国公民，多做有利于增进两国人民相互了解的事情，并送美方一句古话：“勿以恶小而为之，勿以善小而不为。
During their ...
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Origin of "Butter wouldn't melt in his/her mouth."
This phrase means that someone is being prim and proper with a cool kind of demeanour. But from what event or phenomenon or occurrence was this idiom derived from, and when?
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What is the origin of the phrase "playing hooky"?
What does the word "hooky" mean in the phrase "play hooky" (skipping class/truancy) and where did it come from?
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Is the phrase "put paid to" widely understood outside of the UK?
A comment on this question notes that the phrase "put paid to" (meaning put a stop to) is unlikely to be understood in the US. Another comment indicates that the phrase is widely understood ...
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Let's assume X+into is a phrasal verb meaning A. X is also used with into again but with a different meaning (B) Can we count it as a phrasal verb?
Let's assume that we have 2 words: X and into. In dictionary the phrase X+into is accepted as a phrasal verb when it means A. We can also use X with the word into again, but then it literally means ...
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Have...going for one/oneself
There's this expression shown in Oxford:
have — going for one
Used to indicate how much someone has in their favour or to their advantage.
Why did she do it? She had so much going for her
In this ...
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What is the technique that produces phrases like "Miss Anne Thrope" called and is there a master list of names?
Misanthrope, as a word, can be converted into the pseudonym "Miss Anne Thrope" (bonus points if the meaning reflects the writer's style).
But what is this technique called and is there a ...
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What is the origin of the pejorative idiom "You Doughnut"?
American English (You Donut)
In informal speech the phrase is used to highlight stupidity.
E.g.
You Donut
An individual whom is extremely stupid. Lacks intelligence and common sense.
An ...
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Is there a word that means exactly physically carrying things (baggage, person etc.) on the head or shoulders?
Example sentence
Bill ____ the demon.
Single word (verb) is better, two words (VP) are okay. The word has to mean carrying something physically on the head or shoulders.
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Does "breathe in the light" have any colloquial meaning?
I have noticed that the phrase "breathe in the light" is used in several seemingly unrelated pieces of music, for instance, it is the name of a "Stellardrone" track, and in the ...
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Current prevalence of idiom "pulling for you"
A prior question asks about the origin of the phrase "pulling for you," a phrase that conveys well-wishes and support (Merriam-Webster):
US, informal
: to say or show that one hopes (...
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What is the origin of the idiom "get your shorts in a knot"? [duplicate]
I got this idiom from my English homework and still can't wrap my head around why this means "to become over upset over something, especially something unimportant."
Does anyone know where ...
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all fire and toe
I'm reading the as-told-to memoir, No Quittin' Sense, of a black man born and raised in East Texas circa 1895. He quotes the expression "all fire and toe".
After we left, Marthy said "...
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What is the origin of the idiom/phrase "Heroes never die"?
I've been bothered by some guy on my online gaming server that kept spamming the phrase "Heroes never die" for quite some time during last weekend before he was banned.
To clear my mind of this ...
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