10
votes
What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
Being / get paid in buttons. It's probably not common enough to be classed as an idiom, but it's one of the most transparent metaphors imaginable. Cambridge Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, AHD and R H K ...
- 70.7k
5
votes
What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
It means paying in actual buttons, but facetious because they would not be enough to pay a doctor's bill.
Small amounts of currency in the UK used to be acceptable as buttons or pins. There is an ...
- 15k
5
votes
What is the origin of the idiom "get/be shot of"?
Because "get shot of" and "get shut of" are so similar orthographically, phonetically, and in everyday meaning, my answer looks into the origins of both.
Modern reference work ...
- 151k
4
votes
What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
Poor rural people are often cash strapped even today in places like the US and England, it was much worse in the past.
So, it’s common to hear tales of professionals (particularly Doctors) being paid ...
- 1,223
3
votes
What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
If you are in a setting when donations or payments are expected, a button can pass in the moment and easily be explained if detected and an explanation becomes necessary.
“Who put these buttons in ...
- 265
3
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the idiom "get/be shot of"?
The OED ("shoot" 37 b) says "get shot" is from a dialectal passive form of the verb "shoot", here meaning "to rid (of)". This (mostly obsolete) sense of "...
- 4,521
2
votes
Is Einstein's geodesic a metaphor or an idiom?
An idiom is a lexical and/or syntactic fixed phrase that does not work like normal phrases, and does not mean what it looks like it should mean. For example, no buckets, books, or hands are involved ...
- 100k
2
votes
Accepted
Does the idiom "dotting your Is and crossing your Ts" have a negative connotation?
Most dictionaries of idioms that I've checked do not give space to any negative element that may lurk at the extreme end of "dotting your i's and crossing your t's." Here, for example, is ...
- 151k
2
votes
Accepted
Meaning of sentences begining with "such is..."
Such is an allomorph of so and is used in many of the same constructions. Such introduces predicate nouns and so introduces predicate adjectives
It's such a loss! It's so soft! (intensifier use)
He's ...
- 100k
2
votes
What is the meaning of "paying in buttons"?
It's a way of expressing something of little worth, and I don't feel that either of the examples quoted by Noelia sits comfortably with British usage as I know it. Are the sources from elsewhere? My ...
- 111
2
votes
Accepted
To remove someone's sins
Professor John Lawler wrote in a comment:
The verb is absolve, and it takes the forgiver as the subject and forgivee as the object; the reason for the absolution is expressed in a prepositional ...
1
vote
Idioms indicating symbiosis rather than conflict
It sounds as if they have to "learn to live with each other". (This is fairly close to the etymological roots of "symbiosis".)
- 2,204
1
vote
Idioms indicating symbiosis rather than conflict
Paul Hoffman, writing for the Daily Maverick {March 2022}, addresses what he sees as the need for a negotiated peace in the Ukraine:
The sooner the mediation route is explored between Russia and ...
- 70.7k
1
vote
Idioms indicating symbiosis rather than conflict
Some suggestions:
Put aside (our) differences
forget about or put aside the things that one argues about, disagrees with, or dislikes about the other side, usually in order to achieve a common goal
...
- 1,976
1
vote
Origin of “Peace Through Superior Firepower”
“Peace Through Superior Firepower”
In cases like this, Google Ngram is sometimes helpful, however it is not definitive.
As you can see, the earliest usage in print in English as a phrase probably ...
1
vote
Accepted
Can a single word be an idiom or an expression?
Can a single word be considered an idiom or an expression?
From Lexico:
Expression
/count noun/ A word or phrase, especially an idiomatic one, used to convey an idea.
‘we have an expression, ‘You ...
1
vote
What's the idiom for doing something in vain
Flog a dead horse is a common idiom in such situations.
flog a dead horse
[The Free Dictionary]
- 6,610
1
vote
Which one is correct/idiomatic?
All arrangements are idiomatic and result in the same meaning. Which you use is a matter of personal preference in this particular case.
(CoGEL § 8.14) There is a sharp difference between A [the ...
- 13.5k
1
vote
Accepted
get up and running with something
To me they mean different things.
If I "get Julia up and running" that means I install her on my machine so that she is operating.
But to have "got up and running with Julia" would ...
- 63.7k
1
vote
Accepted
Idiom/Phrase to fight someone else's war?
"To fight someone else's' war" sounds a little like ...
proxy war/fight/fighter
A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors which act on the instigation or on ...
1
vote
Is it correct to say “things are looking up for my travel plans”
In fact, for [person or situation with improved prospects] is by far the most common word to follow idiomatic things are looking up...
Presumably OP's doubts spring from the fact that usually the &...
- 134k
1
vote
Why do we talk of 'spoiling for a fight'?
This is a very common expression in Ireland, especially of the generation that I knew who were born around the 1920s. Perhaps lesser so as the following generations came to be.
It wouldn't surprise me ...
- 11
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