Questions tagged [idiom-meaning]
An idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.
527
questions
0
votes
1
answer
35
views
with a conscience
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XVI, published 1892)
Passage 252
Then I remembered that I had a friend on board, and stepped to the companion.
“Gentlemen,” ...
- 221
3
votes
1
answer
89
views
Meaning of "be just a little too smart by ninety-nine and three-quarters"
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XIV, published 1892)
Passage 224
“Guess so,” he said. “You needn't fool with it. There's nothing else but a lead-pencil and a ...
- 221
1
vote
1
answer
116
views
Meaning of . . . “you just meet me on the ballast, and we'll make it a barquentine.”
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XI, published 1892)
Passage 177
“I don't see it,” returned the captain drily. “One captain's enough for any ship that ever I ...
- 221
0
votes
1
answer
102
views
Meaning of . . . , "I'm laying a little dark"
(From The Wrecker by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne, Chapter XI; published 1892)
Passage 176
“Well,” returned Nares, with the same unamiable reserve, “for a reason, which I guess you know, ...
- 221
0
votes
1
answer
91
views
Meaning of "get out" in "He gets out when he can" [closed]
In his famous hit Working Class Man, Jimmy Barnes sings:
He believes in God and Elvis
He gets out when he can
He did his time in Vietnam
Still mad at Uncle Sam
I can't make sense of the second line. ...
- 2,044
1
vote
1
answer
51
views
What is meant by "to take the offence" in Act I, scene 1 of "Two Noble Kinsmen"?
In act I, scene 1, of The Two Noble Kinsmen, the first queen says:
1. Queen. We are 3. Queenes, whose Soveraignes fel before
The wrath of cruell Creon; who endured
The Beakes of Ravens, Tallents of ...
- 1,720
-2
votes
1
answer
100
views
What's the meaning of "hardly seem more implausible"?
In the following text, what does "the latter scenario could hardly seem more implausible" mean?
The result suggests one of two scenarios. One is that arctic foxes
gave rise to swift foxes, ...
- 121
-1
votes
1
answer
69
views
Meaning of a sentence in the passage discussing the word "run"
30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary_Dan Strutzel / Funk & Lewis
contains
The simple three-letter word “run”, up to this moment of writing has
more than ninety dictionary definitions. There are ...
- 45
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Does the idiom "step on a rake" mean making the same mistake twice?
Disclaimer: in my question I'm not asking for an idiom with a certain meaning; the other way around: I'm interested in a specific idiom and I'm asking whether native English speakers would understand ...
- 261
1
vote
1
answer
45
views
Contextual meaning of 'sought to legitimize the city's social strivings by evoking a history the city did not truly posses' [closed]
This sentence below was a GRE question and the two italics and bold words are the actual answers to the text completion. Still, I do not understand what the sentence is trying to say. My understanding ...
-1
votes
1
answer
68
views
Meaning of 'it does not deny ambiguity', 'truth may bear all lights', 'of divine ends'? [closed]
From the passage:
Great comic art is never otherworldly, it does not seek to mystify us, and it does not deny ambiguity by branding as evil whatever differs from good. Great comic artists assume that ...
0
votes
2
answers
63
views
What do ‘some boastful bass’ and ‘had got him hard and fast’ mean in Dickens?
This passage is from chapter 32 of Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens, with the phrases I’m curious about set in bold:
Occasionally, a vocal strain more sonorous than the generality informed the ...
- 709
2
votes
1
answer
184
views
When did the expression "cat's breakfast" come in to usage as an example of a hodgepodge collection, assuming it ever did?
In CNN's January 8, 2023 video Retired general calls new armored vehicles US is sending Ukraine 'significant' after about 04:40 US Retired Major General (and analyst for CNN) James "Spider" ...
- 877
0
votes
2
answers
933
views
"Used to play" or "was used to playing"? [closed]
In the answer he says 'used to play' means I played something in the past but not anymore, yet 'was used to playing' means a habitual activity but had changed some way.
For me, as a non-native English ...
- 13
13
votes
10
answers
3k
views
Alternative idiom to "ploughing through something" that's more sad and struggling
I thought that "to plough through" something means that you're going through a difficult time, feel down, but do your best to keep going. But when I looked it up, I find definitions like:
...
- 133
1
vote
3
answers
83
views
"..., as it were, ..."
The phrase "as it were" can mean figuratively, or indicate a non-literal sense. Cambridge Dictionary defines:
sometimes said after a figurative (= not meaning exactly what it appears to ...
- 585
1
vote
3
answers
298
views
Why does "we have been over this" mean something different from "we are over this"?
The whole sentence is:
We’ve been over this a thousand times. The data is irrefutable!
What does it mean to "have been over this" here in this context? How does this meaning differ here ...
- 121
1
vote
1
answer
80
views
Etymology of the idiom "what with"
I'm curious about the etymology of the idiom what with. How did it come to mean Taking into consideration; because of?
You say what with in order to introduce the reasons for a particular situation, ...
- 8,230
0
votes
1
answer
77
views
Meaning of "after the pips"
For 100 years, the BBC has parceled up disaster and defeat, then distributed them, after the pips and before the weather forecast, to the British.
"After the pips" should be something ...
- 347
1
vote
2
answers
162
views
"Under the glass" means "not in public"?
I heard a woman who is a native English speaker saying "someone will say something like that in public or under the glass."
I've not heard of the idiom, "under the glass", but ...
- 946
4
votes
1
answer
116
views
What is the meaning of "As bare as a bird’s tail?"
I initially found it in a 17th century English-Dutch Dictionary, page 37
I then found it in https://www.bartleby.com/
As bare as a bird’s tail. 1361
Twelve Mery Gestys of the Widow Edyth, 1525, by ...
- 634
2
votes
2
answers
164
views
"starched collar on loan" meaning
Yet the new king does not have to be a statesman to succeed. And that is the second reason Britain’s constitutional monarchy has thrived. His powers will be as circumscribed as a starched collar on ...
- 347
5
votes
1
answer
9k
views
What's the meaning of "this side of Albania"?
In this diary excerpt, Alan Rickman wrote:
"Emma [Watson]’s diction is this side of Albania at times."
I understand the general meaning of the idiom (What is the meaning of the phrase "...
- 153
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
So nearly so as to
While reading the book Introduction to Mathematical Logic by Alonso Church, I have met with the idiom 'so nearly so as to' of which meaning I hardly grasp from context:
Again the sentence "Sir ...
- 111
1
vote
2
answers
120
views
"The crowd chooses Barabbas" meaning?
What is the meaning of the expression "the crowd chooses Barabbas"?
I'm very familiar with the account where the crowds chose to spare Barabbas instead of Jesus, but I'm not sure of the ...
- 133
2
votes
1
answer
58
views
What's the Meaning of the Aphorism "Contemporaries live from second hand to mouth"?
What's the meaning of the following aphorism by Karl Kraus:
Contemporaries live from second hand to mouth.
Source: Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths
Just to clarify, I know the meaning of "...
- 39
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Meaning of the phrase “not this little black duck”?
What does the phrase “not this little black duck” mean? I know it’s common among Australian people but I am not sure what does it mean.
- 41
-1
votes
2
answers
56
views
Meaning of the idiom "To leave the friendship of men"
I found the saying in a 17th century English-Dutch dictionary,
Is there a figurative meaning to the phrase beyond the literal meaning of the words?
- 634
-1
votes
1
answer
246
views
What is the meaning of “down to the fact”? [closed]
What does it mean in this sentence?
This comes down to the fact that boys like toys.
0
votes
1
answer
60
views
Too many engineers in the caboose
One of my bosses mentioned this phrase the other day:
Too many engineers in the caboose
I discovered the meaning of caboose today (Fourgon-frein), but for some reason searching for the phrase on ...
- 103
1
vote
1
answer
68
views
Expressing the idea of killing, finishing/knocking someone off with the phrasal verb "to blip off"
Somehow I was in the knowledge of the fact that the phrasal verb "to blip off" could be used to convey the idea of "to bump off", "to kill", "to knock off" and ...
- 235
19
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What does the social idiom "not received" mean in 19th century America?
I am struggling with a use of the word "received" that I have never seen before, in conjunction with a social status in 19th century America. Specifically, in Margaret Mitchell's Gone With ...
- 303
4
votes
1
answer
60
views
What is the meaning of the idiom, "limbing forth to the life"?
I've come across what appears to be an idiom that I'm at a loss as to the meaning, and searched online to no avail. The text is Dæmonologie and Theologie by Nathanael Homes, published in 1650.
…a ...
- 203
13
votes
2
answers
4k
views
What is the meaning of Terry Pratchett's idiom/pun "coming and going"?
I have encountered a pun in a novel by Terry Pratchett that I cannot wrap my head around. I'm not a native English speaker, and any assistance with this would be highly appreciated. The pun seems to ...
- 131
7
votes
2
answers
187
views
Is ‘just’ an adjective in ‘just anyone’?
Given this sentence:
Nina wouldn’t give her phone number to just anyone.
I’ve checked several dictionaries (Oxford, Longman, Cambridge, Macmillan)
for the word just from the example above. It looks ...
- 191
0
votes
1
answer
70
views
Meaning of "Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach." [closed]
I read the following quote today from a book about productivity:
Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach.
I know that the first sentence talks about noting down all the ...
- 937
1
vote
1
answer
131
views
Meaning of "he'd been had" in this song [duplicate]
There is a song which starts with
Juno was mad, he knew he'd been had
So he shot at the sun with a gun
...
But I'm having trouble trying to understand the expression "he knew he'd been had"...
- 13
2
votes
1
answer
177
views
Idiom/Phrase to fight someone else's war?
Like, people made to fight for a war that was not needed. But they are made to do it under someone else's influence.
*Edit
Apologies for not being more specific. Yes, I would say being used as canon ...
- 545
0
votes
1
answer
39
views
Is it correct to say “things are looking up for my travel plans” [closed]
Is it correct to say “things are looking up for my travel plans” to indicate that I am ready to start planning my travel after so many problems.
2
votes
1
answer
98
views
Does "dodging a silver bullet" convey the meaning [closed]
Assuming a dialogue like this
- (Bob) How is the meeting going?
- (Alice) Dodging a silver bullet.
The idea that Alice is trying to express is that the customer is looking for a metaphorical "...
- 69
0
votes
1
answer
153
views
What’s the meaning of “or near enough as makes no matter” [closed]
I’ve seen people hinted that “makes no matter” means “it doesn’t matter”, but the whole phrase still doesn’t make much sense to me.
Here are some of the examples I found.
Like most of you (I gather), ...
- 103
3
votes
1
answer
246
views
Meaning of add texture to something (a plan, discussion, etc.)
I was having a conversation with a senior executive about launching a new initiative. He said he would like to get behind it, but I need to add a bit more texture to the whole proposal.
What does ...
- 147
5
votes
1
answer
208
views
Is there more to “A hell of a …” than mere interjection or expletive?
Previous examination of “A hell of a …” on this site focussed on emphasis, interjection or expletive usage. As examples we have:
(What is the meaning of "a hell of a lot"?)
a great deal or ...
- 28.4k
0
votes
1
answer
38
views
Meaning of 'hunt-the-fish'
In one of the late columnist A A Gill's columns collected in The Best of A A Gill, there is a paragraph where he is giving both sincere and ironic praise to a traditional pub lunch he had after ...
0
votes
0
answers
24
views
Meaning difference between "to be an expatriate was fashionable" and "it was fashionable to be an expatriate"?
In the following sentences, do the two have same meaning or is there a difference? If so, it would helpful to have certain examples through which I can understand those nuances that make these ...
0
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Meaning of "thread the needle through" and "beat the devil's tattoo"?
Lyrics from the song, Beat the Devil's Tattoo:
I thread the needle through, you beat the devil's tattoo.
Does anyone know the meaning of "thread the needle through" and "beat the ...
- 11
2
votes
2
answers
1k
views
What is the meaning of "out of your own hides"?
Van de Ven & Poole (1990) use the expression "out of their own hides" when discussing research funding. A google search only returns two results. Is this expression idiomatic? What does ...
- 240
18
votes
7
answers
11k
views
Meaning of "tapped on the shoulder"
I am a native French speaker and I do work as a translator in the legal field, and literature (mainly fantasy).
I need an explanation for ‘tapped on the shoulder’:
As for full-time appointments, the ...
- 307
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
Looking for the phrase or idiom that means if you think or act in a certain way it often happens to come out that way [duplicate]
It's a well-known phrase or idiom (in the 20th Century...not sure about now, but it is still used sometimes) that means one's fearful (or can be pleasant too, sometimes) thoughts or actions actually ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
What is the classification for a rote saying like "there but for the grace of God.."? [duplicate]
I'm not after the proverbial or apotropaic aspects of this, or chant or mantra. Just the "event-centric common utterance" aspects. "Knock on wood" is similar I guess.
There's a ...
- 101