Questions tagged [is-it-a-phrase]
The is-it-a-phrase tag has no usage guidance.
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Around Hiram's barn
For most of my life I have used an expression "go around Hiram's barn" to mean an unnecessarily complicated way to do something or an unnecessarily circuitous route.
Recently my daughter informed ...
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Is there a word/phrase that describes someone flinching after they sip alcohol?
Even flinching isn't the best way to describe it.
Example: a person will take a sip of a strong alcoholic beverage (take for instance, straight whiskey) and then will proceed to make that iconic ...
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What's a "summer-funeral hit"?
In a YouTube comment commenting on Jamala's song 1944, someone says
You guys enjoy your summer-funeral hit! I have nothing else to add.
after saying
Ukraine should't have won! What a stupid, ...
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Is "to silo off" a real phrase?
I often hear people (and myself) say that something is "siloed off from" something else, meaning that is is isolated (or, in software, sandboxed) and allowed to work without affecting something else.
...
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What does the phrase 'much the most" mean?
Is it really a phrase?
I found it in Tom Sawyer - "...and the most hospitable and much the most lavish in the matter of festivities that St Petersburg could boast..."
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What does 'best wisdom' mean?
I recently came across the following excerpt:
In other words, once an issue becomes political, people are no longer free to make their own choices based on their personal preference and their best ...
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Connotation of the phrase "bidding big"
Is it correct to say that a bid is "big"? What connotations does the phrase bidding big come to the average native speaker's mind?
Is the phrase, "bidding big" positive or negative? Is it daring or ...
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Is the phrase "Infinitely more efficient" possible?
I've been having an argument with a colleague about the use of the phrase "infinitely more efficient".
I use it sometimes when describing the proper way to implement some programming solutions, but ...
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Can a person have a “dextrous mind”?
Can we say that a man has a dextrous mind?
This would mean that he has a highly skilled brain which is capable of excelling at a certain mental activity, or that he as an individual is capable of ...
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"emmet-butt" - Westcountry dialect
My grandfather's family were from Somerset in the southwest of England and one of his favourite pieces of Westcountry dialect was 'emmet-butt', which apparently meant/means a 'mole hill'.
However, I ...
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