This tag is for questions seeking a phrase that fits a meaning. If you're specifically seeking only a single word, see the "single word requests" tag too.
3
votes
5answers
276 views
What do you call it when a name/word is better known by a pejorative?
A while back, the US Congress passed a bill called the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”. The bill quickly became known as “Obamacare”. During the time prior to when cannabis was made ...
3
votes
3answers
1k views
What does “being skinned alive “mean exactly? Is it a well-established phrase?
There was the following sentence in the article written by Maureen Dowd titled, “Where the boys aren’t,” sketching the life of Dolores Hart in New York Times February 19 issue:
“I had no idea that ...
3
votes
5answers
1k views
Any other way of saying “blah blah blah”
You might say "blah blah blah" when you're not interested in what'd be said.
I sometimes say "whatever" to convey the same idea, which does not share the nice rhythm effect of "blah blah blah". As a ...
2
votes
2answers
363 views
Idiom to describe something that has little to no effect?
I'm looking for an idiom to describe something that has a negligible effect.
The only similar question I found here was: An idiom meaning someone's doing something useless and has no result at ...
2
votes
3answers
104 views
When we thread a bead, what are we doing to the thread?
What is the word for what we are doing to the thread when we "thread a bead"? Are we "beading" the thread? The closest word that I could find was "extrude" but I think that this is more of a ...
2
votes
3answers
148 views
How do I phrase “remote work” better?
I am helping my father write a report.
The report summarizes the work undertaken during the consultant’s technical assistance missions to Statistical Agency of Kosovo and remote work during the ...
1
vote
2answers
81 views
A better way of articulating 'ataractically candid'
I'm trying to convey the sense of a rare moment of tranquility in the mind of a confused, flawed and tormented character.
This is the most ataractically candid thing I've ever written.
This ...
1
vote
3answers
920 views
Idiom about tackling smaller problems instead of tackling the root [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Phrase for focusing on unimportant details
I'm trying to find an idiom about tackling smaller problems instead of tackling their root cause. For example,
Instead of ...
1
vote
3answers
125 views
Image in article
What would you call an image in a newspaper article that appears in the flow of the article with text wrapped around it?
For example an article with two columns — on the right column there's an image ...
-2
votes
3answers
184 views
What's a phrase for abstract / eloquent / euphemistic prose?
I'm looking for a phrase like "transcendental language", but meaning eloquent rather than other-worldly.
In particular, I want to refer to a [literary] sketch as "_ language". This sketch is A Gotham ...
