Hot answers tagged phrases
56
"I want a pony" is a slang phrase, usually used in reply to someone's request for something impossible.
From the Urban Dictionary:
"We want a copy protection solution that's 100% unbreakable."
"Yes, and I want a pony."
In this context, it reads to me that while the author would very much like a solution to the Eurozone crisis, he doesn't believe ...
33
For me, the phrase "Give each of us a pony" means literally "give each of us a gift of a horse."
Ponies, as far as I know, are regarded as a status symbol among certain circles. (Imagine a young girl in a well-to-do family requesting her father this for a birthday present).
So, for me, saying "give each of us a pony" is equivalent to "give each of us a ...
29
In the United States, toilet-training a child typically starts with diapers. An intermediate step is "trainers" or "pull-ups", which are basically diapers with elastic: the kid gets used to the idea that s/he shouldn't just "let go" at any moment, but the absorption is there so that it's not a total disaster if it happens.
Finally, when the kid has ...
25
The usage stats from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) look as follows:
BNC COCA
TOTAL SPOKEN TOTAL SPOKEN
what the hell 716 143 4668 408
what on earth 585 85 607 99
what the fuck 93 ...
22
There exists a term malicious obedience or malicious compliance, and I'm guessing that you're thinking of one of those; but most users of that term (in either variant) use it somewhat differently from what you describe. This page, for example, is typical: it says that malicious obedience is "when people set their boss up to fail by doing exactly as he or she ...
21
This could also be referred to as obeying the 'letter of the law':
letter of the law: When one obeys the letter of the law but not the spirit, one is obeying the literal interpretation of the words (the "letter") of the law, but not the intent of those who wrote the law.
20
It's common in America to talk about a child wanting a pony as a request or demand for an extravagant gift. Little girls especially traditionally see a pony as the ultimate toy. In my own family, for example, since my daughter was old enough to understand money, any time we had an unexpected expense she would jokingly say, "That money could have gone to my ...
20
What you describe is actually the definition of cliché.
From the Wikipedia article:
A cliché or cliche* (UK /ˈkliːʃeɪ/ or US /klɪˈʃeɪ/) is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. ...
...
19
"Work to rule" is the traditional union phrase for an "unofficial" slowdown.
EDIT: ruakh's answer is clearly more responsive to OP's question than mine; but I leave mine in place because "malicious compliance" represents an employer's characterization of the same behaviour. It would be up to an arbitrator (in the first instance) to determine which term (if ...
19
If you don't like the graphic reference to feline taxidermy, you can substitute just about any verb-noun pair to get your point across, so long as your audience can imagine more than one way to do it. These aren't common idioms by any means (some of them will register a tiny number of hits in a Google book search, and others won't), but one could say:
...
19
Given the context of the rest of the sentence (clue: "bitchy wife"), I would interpret "checked-out teenagers"
to mean that his kids are disengaged from any meaningful family interaction and he is using that general assessment of his family life to justify his current course of action.
17
I realize that Ngrams have limitations and can be overused, but I thought there might be a use for one with this question, and the result was not disappointing:
The Ngram indicates that what on earth has seen its heyday, but isn't extinct yet.
Thumbing through the results of the book search, one can see that many of its modern uses are puns (such as the ...
16
The joke is a mild and uncomplicated one. The idea is that you pull the string and the doll kvetches (complains) about it. "Again with the x" is just an idiomatically Yiddish way of complaining.
Nothing to do with "no strings attached".
EDIT:
The whole point of a talking doll is that when you pull the string, it says something appropriate to the ...
16
Perhaps a "learned lady" would be somewhat equivalent to "a gentleman and a scholar."
In this phrase, learned (lur-nid) is defined as:
having great knowledge or erudition
involving or characterized by scholarship
And a lady is:
A well-mannered and considerate woman with high standards of proper behavior.
15
In the phrase you quoted, the implication is one of using two different words for the same exact concept, implying a difference where none exists. It is not simply about disagreement, and indeed implies the opposite: you are not in actual disagreement with each other, but both parties want it to appear that they are referring to different things anyway.
In ...
15
She acted like Lady Macbeth did to Macbeth in Shakespeare's "Macbeth", goading and brow-beating him into a course of action he might otherwise have rejected as immoral, or not even considered.
Is it old usage, or do we also use this phrase in modern times?
Neither; the author is taking the well-known character, and turning her name into a verb to ...
14
Some makers of some fine, light cloths — or the garments made of them — will boast that because they are so fine, you can roll them up and pass them through a wedding ring. (You are supposed to be able to do this with a Shetland shawl, a superfino Panama hat, a ring pashmina [see where the name is from?] and other items.)
The proverbial in this case ...
14
Given the text says Azerbaijan wants to be the world’s next party capital, it's probably a reference to the velvet rope you often see outside swanky party venues where people are queueing to get in...
Saying they're currently velvet-rope-poor doesn't mean they can't afford velvet ropes - it means you won't see scenes like the above very often in ...
13
Here are the keys:
“The leader of the decision team, Arnon Mishkin”
“Arnon doesn’t do TV very often”
“Chris — because he’s on TV every day — to put it in English.”
Arnon is a stats guy, an inside guy, and probably a corporate guy. He ordinarily speaks and writes to his peers in a jargon-ridden polysyllabic noun-heavy technical-corporate dialect ...
13
It means the author is trying too hard. I think he is trying to combine the idiom sink like a stone with a snide reference to the money the US government has poured into General Motors and electric cars. There may be hints of go down like a lead balloon in there, too.
Transparency here probably refers to exposing the process of decision making to public ...
13
"X in the sand" doesn't really exist as a stand-alone.
A "line in the sand" sets a limit. Crossing that line will have consequences of some sort.
It is a very old idea. The Ramayana includes a line in the sand, drawn around a house to protect it. The Roman Laenas drew a line in the sand around King Antiochus, saying that Rome would declare war if he ...
13
The allusion is to the proverb when Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war, which means that a battle-royal can be expected between two adversaries of equal strength and determination.
So far as I can tell from your snippet, the author means that having set up such an encounter, she is now going to see the results.
13
All three of these meanings for out in Collins relate to this usage
47.intr to be made known or effective despite efforts to the contrary (esp in the phrase will out) the truth will out
48.tr (informal) (of homosexuals) to expose (a public figure) as being a fellow homosexual
49.tr (informal) to expose something secret, embarrassing, or ...
12
The inclusion of a modifier like "big boy/girl" is crucial to the meaning: stop behaving childishly.
The expression alludes to literally telling a child to put on more mature clothes, "big boy/girl" being used in place of "mature" for ease of comprehension. One might literally tell a child to "put on their big boy pants" before a formal event. By ...
12
The difference between Windows Calculator and Excel is that Windows Calculator is designed for interactive use only. It performs calculations only when you push its buttons. Whereas Excel is programmable: it can be instructed to perform a long series of calculations without needing user interaction for each one.
So Joel is analogising pressing the buttons ...
12
Google Ngram Viewer reports that for God’s sake is most popular in their collection of published books, with for Heaven’s/heaven’s sake second and for Jesus’ sake third:
Use of all but for God’s sake and for heaven’s sake tapered off during the 20th Century. At the same time, for Pete’s sake and for fuck’s sake made an appearance. Pete and fuck have never ...
12
Blinkers are eye-shades for horses which allow them to see only straight ahead and prevent them from being distracted by events around them.
Red Bull is a proprietary energy drink.
Your developer is saying that you will need to be focused on the single goal without distractions, and will be working long hours.
12
I think that the phrase is intentionally ambiguous.
Originally 'by hand' meant nursed by someone other than ones biological mother (not necessarily by bottle). But Dickens is making a bit of use of amphiboly:
The full Dickens quote is:
My sister Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had established a great reputation with ...
11
It needs to be two names for the same thing. In the example you gave, some say it's a "loan" others call it a "bailout"
But when it's a choice between two different things, "tax increase" or "spending cut" it's not a case of the same thing by a different name so it is not appropriate to use the "You say 'tomato'... " turn of phrase.
11
It appears to be from Persian and Urdu.
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cheese--2?region=uk&q=big+cheese
noun
(in phrase big cheese) informal
an important person:
he was a really big cheese in the business world
Origin:
1920s: probably via Urdu from Persian čīz 'thing': the phrase the cheese was used ...
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