New answers tagged idioms
2
'Beating around the bush' seems to fit, as does 'diverging from the main topic', or maybe even 'off-topic' (the word we often see on SE!) depending on how far away the discussion is going.
0
In a nutshell, yes, "I would have made for a bad lawyer" means that you would have been a bad lawyer if you had become one.
However, as the extended comment trail on the other answer attests, there are some regional (and perhaps personal) preferences on whether to use the word 'for' in that sense. I see these two statements as equivalent:
I would have ...
2
Hit a nerve or struck a nerve are common in AmE too, as your research shows.
We don't tip people winks in the States though. We do tip someone off when we give them privileged information. Moreover, we may use a surreptitious wink to communicate something private or privileged. In that sense, He tipped me off with a wink sounds natural. (Actually, ...
0
The term I would use is butterfingers. Instead of everything one touches turning "golden," it slips through their fingers and is ruined, or at least useless.
5
I wouldn't use "anything in a skirt" as a plain alternative to "female" in conversation. If you're referring to grown women, use women. If you're referring to jailbait (girls not legally old enough to have sex with in most states in the USA (usually 18, except in NJ, where 13-year-old boys can legally have sex with 13-year-old girls but 18-year-old boys ...
15
It's meant to emphasise the subject's promiscuity. In this form it is a replacement for "any woman" and carries no undertones with respect to women, with the possible exception of implying that wearing skirts is associated with women.
It is certainly not a general or neutral alternative to women in other cases. "Skirt" is often considered a derogatory term ...
3
One of the uses of make when used in this construction is be suitable for. Check it out in
OALD.
I've never heard this expression used with the preposition for. The expression should be "I would have made a bad lawyer".
EDIT: Following Fumblefingers' and Lynn's comments, I found the phrasal verb make for something, which means help to make something ...
2
OED has as its earliest citation an extract from Kipling's Captain Courageous (1897):
13 a. To be agreeable or convenient to (a person, his inclinations, etc.); to fall in with the views or wishes of.
13 b. suit yourself v. do (or think) as you please, please yourself. colloq.
1897 R. Kipling Capt. Courageous i. 21 ‘You stole it.’ ‘Suit ...
3
The OED gives the pertinent meaning of suit as:
To provide, furnish. Chiefly pass. (or refl.), to be provided (or provide oneself) with something desired and in such a manner as to please one.
Therefore 'suit yourself' is just another way of saying 'please yourself'. It's not metaphorical.
The OED also has an entry for the phrase itself:
b. ...
3
A pill is “a disagreeable or tiresome person,” often because he is a square (overly conventional) or a Debbie Downer (overly negative).
Playing the pill means that he chose the role of a pill, rather than somebody witty and charismatic – like former president John F. Kennedy. It's not idiomatic, but merely colorful language.
3
It is the past tense of "as it is", like the present tense version usually used to designate an actual as opposed to a (previously expressed) hypothetical contingency.
1
Taken at face value, it does imply that Y was not surpassed, but its use is often figurative, such as in, "This is the greatest thing since sliced bread," and not meant to be taken literally.
2
Typically the writer of such a phrase expects the reader to infer that Y (the earlier event) was bigger, deadlier, or higher than X (the recent event); and typically that is what readers do. It is true that in point of fact such phrases don't actually say, and don't logically imply, that conclusion. But in ordinary conversation the implication is taken ...
6
The OED has this use of the verb favour dating back to the 16th century:
7. To deal gently with; to avoid overtasking (a limb); to ease, save, spare. Now colloq. (esp. in stable parlance) and dial.
1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. YYYiiiiv, Fauour thy body.
1590 R. Harvey Plaine Percevall sig. C4v, A Preacher..must haue ...
3
In that context, favor has the meaning “treat with care”; stated that way, the connection to other senses of the word is more obvious.
This usage it appears at least as early as 1826 in Robert Drury's Journal:
I walked on this seventh day; and though I favored my lame foot as much as I could, yet I rested but once all day. This way happened to be plain ...
1
It could be used to describe anyone, but the reason you see it applied to famous people is that your sources are news stories, which are more often written about famous people.
You're right to compare it to the phrase "call it a day" – it's a play on that phrase. As such, it draws a comparison between an especially long or hard day's work and the work of a ...
4
The phrase here is "Take it to" rather than "take it to the hoes." The only thing that makes this a bit confusing is that the thing that the person is taking (or carrying) is probably not an object, but rather some objective, goal, or request. The speaker of the quote is suggesting that needing to get your freak on is best solved by taking that problem to ...
4
If meant as an idiom, I would say that the phrase was an error as it would seem to indicate that the person would be acting antithetically to how one would act with their gloves off, which, as you noted, would essentially mean that they would be fighting them in a fair manner in hopes of inflicting minimal damage (since the gloves are off phrase comes from ...
4
I haven't found a reliable source to corroborate, but this set of annotations has a likely interpretation:
shrewd turns: he only repays debts to those who have wronged him, i.e. revenge.
EDIT:
This usage comes from a sense of shrewd that was already obsolete in 1828:
Painful; vexatious; troublesome.
Every of this number / That have endured ...
1
The earliest reference I found was about tennis in 1898, but the importance of using the wrist to control a movement instead of placing all bets on the strength of the arm predates it by at least a hundred years in fencing.
Basically, although it might not be an "official" idiom you'd find in a reference book, I've seen it constantly used to mean – ...
2
In the absence of any clear reference you might never know for sure, but I'd say there's a good chance that it originated with fly fishing. The technique for properly casting the lure requires skillful wrist action.
Another possible origin I can think of is Bowling, but I'd give more weight to fly fishing because of its age.
2
Besides Bradd's good suggestions, there's also "focal point", "highlight" or my favorite "Pièce de résistance", defined below.
From Wikipedia:
Pièce de résistance (French pronunciation: [pjɛs də ʁezistɑ̃s]) is a
French term (circa 1839), also called "plat de résistance" in France,
translated into English literally as "piece of (or for) ...
2
You can use setpiece for the non-pornographic sense of money shot. It refers literally to movie scenes or sequences which require “serious logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money,” although it's also used more broadly to describe significant or climactic events in a story.
Notable examples of setpieces include the Snake Pit in Raiders ...
2
OED has a note
[The origin of the phrase has been the subject of numerous ingenious conjectures: see Brewer, Phrase and Fable, etc. A probable suggestion refers it to the circumstances recorded in quot. 1703; a less likely source has been suggested in quot. a1691.]
So they don't know the origin. The citations are:
[a1691 Baxter in Reliq. Baxt. ...
0
The word for law used in Arabic is Qaanun, and it does not have a religious context necessarily (although it might have religious roots, I'm not sure). Thus Shari3a is, as @Iucounu notes, a moral and legal code - but it is not "law" per se. Note that the linked-to article mentions Qaanun Islaami, Islamic Law, as a synonym for Sharia'.
So, yeah, it's a ...
0
In my opinion, the most important thing for understanding the words, their exact meaning, is to know their root - their etymology. In this particular case, the word disaster has its origin from Latin words dis which means bad and aster which means a star. Therefore disaster is a bad star!
Our predecessors relied on astrology and they believed that the ...
2
Generally, a person will say this if he/she
is unkempt. Messy hair, dirty clothes, lack of personal hygiene, etc...
is at a difficult emotional state. It can be caused by relationship troubles, unexpected life situations, or recent trauma.
is performing poorly at a game or task. "I cannot shoot any hoops tonight. I am a disaster."
-1
I've come across "shot in foot" to mean, "gave too detailed an answer which revealed their ignorance" in the context of exam marking.
For example:
Why do apples fall to Earth?
Answer "gravity" - correct, 1 mark
Answer "gravity causes the apple to move itself closer to the Earth" - incorrect, showed they have the wrong idea about gravity, no mark.
So in ...
1
I would have never thought this expression had anything to do with duels, or guessed that dueling was the origin of this expression. After analyzing the phrase, though, I can see how that might be the case.
When I've heard this expression, it's been used to describe a situation where:
a group of people were gathered
one person said something that another ...
0
Even though to call someone out means, among other things, to challenge someone to a duel, it also means, more generally, to challenge someone to a fight. Sometimes it's necessary to slightly change the dictionary meaning of a word or idiom to give it the proper meaning in context.
When the current pope chastises his recently abdicated predecessor for ...
2
The earliest quotation of the phrase like pulling teeth in the OED is 19th century:
1836 Knickerbocker Sept. 306 And for this service
to the sons, what did I get from the sires? The
pittance of a few dollars, which came like pulling so many teeth.
I found an earlier example from 1831 published in the Foreign Missionary Register of The American ...
3
I believe this originated sometime in the 1980's (I don't have a specific reference other than memory) with "I brake for children" becoming a fad ("Baby on board" followed soon after.).
Numerous wags then ran with it to create hundreds of variations.
8
First off, note that the idiom is "I brake for…", not "I break for…".
I imagine it's a reference to cautionary signs placed on the back of certain vehicles. For example, in the US, it's common to see signs like this on school buses or service vehicles:
This vehicle stops at all railroad crossings
This vehicle stops at all red lights
...
3
Not quite. No word or phrase is 100% subsitutable for any other word or phrase.
For instance, uncomfortable can take a that-complement
He's uncomfortable that she's jealous of him.
whereas ill at ease is less adaptable
*He's ill at ease that she's jealous of him.
This is pretty much normal behavior for phrases; they aren't as old as words, ...
0
If it's in relation to paid work that is very undemanding, then "sinecure" would be the correct word.
-3
There, there is probably meant to convey an objective degree of separation - meaning to see that one's troubles are something apart from oneself.
1
You are the apple of my eye
This is sweet
0
Without more context it's impossible to say exactly what nuance is intended in OP's example.
To get to [do something] can mean have the chance to do it.
To get to know someone/something can mean become [very well] acquainted with them/it.
So OP might mean he's glad he came to know her [well], or glad he had the chance to know her.
You might think it's ...
0
It's a third sense, one of enjoying an opportunity or ability for something-- the third intransitive sense, according to Merriam-Webster, out of at least 19:
3 a : to be able [never got to go to college]
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