Questions tagged [idioms]
Idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Use [idiom-requests] if you are searching for an idiom with a particular meaning.
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What is the name for sayings that have come to mean the opposite of what they were originally?
There are a few colloquial sayings that have come to mean the opposite of their original intent perhaps due to being used out of context. For example:
"Pull yourself up by the bootstraps":
...
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What is the origin of "lame duck" as a political term and, before that, as a financial term?
An article by Mark Leibovich titled "Donald Trump Is a Lamer Duck Than Ever" posted today in The Atlantic, includes the following note on the origin of the term:
Senator Lazarus Powell of ...
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What part of speech are the last words of "all at once", "gone at last", "good at first", etc?
All three words (once, last, first) can be defined as adverbs, adjectives, or nouns with similar definitions for each part of speech for the respective words.
I'm trying to figure out if those words ...
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I'm going to school here (in this school)
Been going to school here for 3 years.
The Mission/Beavis H. S3E9
Is coming possible here, or is go to school as strong an idiom as bring to the table?
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Are there levels of formality? Where (if at all) do corporate jargon as used in businesses and colloquialism fit in? along such a possible spectrum?
Like for example is using corporate jargon, like "a low-hanging fruit" or "circle back" comparable (equally acceptable) to using colloquialisms like "ain't it", "...
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Idiomatic stress: phrasal verbs
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dict. (See Macmillan here too, and the perspective of Multi-word verbs (MWVs))
Like other phases, a phrasal verb (= a verb word and an adverbial
particle) is ...
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Where does the expression “roll with it” come from?
Dame Helen Mirren in a recent interview on aging said:
“It’s much better to age disgracefully! Take it on the chin, and roll with it. You die young, or you get older. There is nothing in between! You ...
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Use of 'interesting state' for pregnancy
Despite my attempts, I found a pitiful lack of information in dictionaries (e.g. Collins) . I am limited to citing the Wiktionary entry for interesting:
(euphemistic) Pregnant. (used with situation ...
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Like in old times
Is it idiomatic to use "like in old times" to mean as we used to?
Come round when you have time. It would be great to hang around like in old times.
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Living long is/longevity is [closed]
Is it idiomatic to say "Living long is luck" to mean "longevity is luck" and "living a long life is luck?" Without adding "good" before "luck" does ...
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Does “as a man” ever mean “as one man” (all together)?
I’ve always understood as one man to mean “all acting together, unanimously” (Cambridge: “If a group of people do something as one man, they do it together at exactly the same time.”)
Recently I came ...
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Is "all/other things being equal" an idiom?
Google tells me an idiom is "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words".
When I look at the definition of "all/other ...
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What is the origin of "on a (more) serious note"?
The expressions on a serious note and on a more serious note are used to indicate a change from a lighthearted register to a more serious one. A Google search gives many definitions equivalent to this,...
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"On a tangential note", "as a tangential note": "on" or "as"?
The expression "on a tangential note" results in not a single hit in a Google search, but from the restrictive search "a tangential note" the very apparent shortcoming of the ...
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"Can you change me?"
I was at a retail store buying some stuff. As I was standing at the counter to check out, a foreign military person, whom I suspect was with the U.N., walked in, held up a U.S. dollar bill, and asked ...
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When did "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" first appear in print with its current figurative meaning?
Christine Ammer, The Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés, second edition (2006) has the following entry for the phrase "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed"
bright-eyed and bushy tailed Lively and ...
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Taking small amounts till there's nothing left
I'm trying to find an idiom or metaphor to describe "everyone takes a small part of something there'll be nothing left".
For example everyone taking a grain of sand till there's no beach ...
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What did "all over egg" mean in Edwardian BE?
From The Wind in the Willows, 1908:
... [they] were finishing breakfast in their little parlour and eagerly discussing their plans for the day, when a heavy knock sounded at the door.
'Bother!' said ...
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Term for defining/differentiating one or more terms in a list by using a different term in the list
There is a fine question and answer pair here on ELU about [h]ow to define & differentiate, "on hand", "to hand", "at hand"[, "in hand"] (archived). I ...
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What does "I'll be bumped" mean?
In The Tower Treasure, the first Hardy Boys book, Frank and Joe Hardy solve the mystery, showing up Chief Collig, the chief of police. Presented with evidence that they had arrested the wrong man and ...
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Perceived or conceived as
Isn't either "conceived" or "perceived" correct? I checked the patterns of "conceive" it is also used with "as." I am confused. Are both possible?
Computers ...
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Are an idiom, and a combination of a light verb and a noun, a lexical unit and a syntactic unit?
CaGEL says on p273 that "An idiom is a lexical unit, and there is no requirement that lexical units coincide with syntactic ones":
6 Special verb + preposition combinations and related ...
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Is there a difference between “technically correct” and “correct in practice”?
I've often heard people say something is "technically correct," followed by a disclaimer like “but nobody says that,” or “it sounds awkward.” This raises a deeper question:
Is there a ...
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Is it idiomatic to say "New Year's holidays" or "winter holidays"? If not, what is?
I'm trying to describe the school break in my country, which includes New Year's Day and goes into early January. Christmas is celebrated on January 7 here, and schools are typically closed from ...
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Why is “raining cats and dogs” used to describe heavy rain? [duplicate]
What do animals have to do with storms? The phrase “raining cats and dogs” is widely understood to mean that it’s raining very heavily, but I’ve always found it puzzling. What do cats and dogs have to ...
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'(Just) as well' (adjective): meaning and etymology [closed]
WELL (adjective) proper or appropriate
It is as well that you apologized.
It’s (just) as well (that) he can’t come.
It'd be (just) as well to phone first.
What does as mean in this idiom? (and what ...
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'No thanks to': idiom
It's no thanks to you that I did not miss the train.
The weeks have rolled by and thankfully a solution emerged – but no thanks to the government.
What is the 'etymology' (original syntactic phrase) ...
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Talk according to your interests
Is "talking according to your interests" unidiomatic to use? I mean people talk about things they find interesting.
"I think social networks are a great place where people can meet and ...
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Is the expression “dumber than a sack of bricks” in common usage?
Today Elon Musk was reported as having used the expression:
“He is dumber than a sack of bricks”.
The saying strikes me as a bit odd, and checking a few dictionaries it appears that like a bag, a ...
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What is the difference between "free rider" and "free loader"?
When I started to read about libertarianism as well as study economics in the 90s "the free-rider problem" was a common subject.
As far as I remember, this problem was always referred to as &...
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"If it works, it works" [closed]
I've always hated the phrase
If it works, it works.
I know it's trying to say that if something already functions as intended, then there's no reason to change it. But is that always necessarily the ...
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Is ”coming as it did " right here?
Trump frequently attacks and mocks political enemies on Twitter, and previously went after Thunberg in September, though his Thursday morning broadside was still jarring coming from a sitting US ...
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Is ‘Raid Kills Bugs Dead’ grammatical?
I came across this slogan from Raid: ‘Raid Kills Bugs Dead’ written by poet Lew Welch. It is apparently very successful (having its own section in Raid's Wikipedia). But isn’t the sentence ...
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A Whole or Wholly New Ball Game?
I'm wondering if this idiom is correct grammatically.
It should be a "wholly new ball game", right? The game is completely new, the word "whole" modifies the adjective "new&...
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How does the meaning of "high time" depend on the tone of voice and/or context?
I read the following explanation for the phrase "high time" in Dictionary.com:
The appropriate time for something; also, past the appropriate time.
For example,
It's high time we did ...
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Idiomatic culture-neutral alternative to "It's Greek to me"
When I want to say that some topic is totally incomprehensible to me, I say "It's Greek to me", or (in Hebrew) "It's Chinese to me".
But if I speak in front of an audience from ...
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What is the origin of the expression "seeing red" in reference to "being angry"?
What is the linguistic or cultural origin of the English idiom "seeing red" as a metaphor for anger? Does it stem from psychological, physiological, or historical influences?
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The water dragged him along on its wave?
The water took hold of him and dragged him along on its massive wave before it crashed against the shore.
Is "dragged him along on its massive wave" weird? I feel this sentence is kind of ...
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I am puzzled by the reason for what seems like an unnecessary "not" in some questions -- and I don't mean a double negative
I have long been puzzled why "not" appears in constructions like:
Do you not agree that X is a most pleasant person?
when it is clear from the context that the person asked clearly does ...
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The origin of 'water breaking' during pregnancy
When did the phrase 'water breaks', 'her water broke', or 'broken water' first come into use to describe the release of amniotic fluid before birth?
break water
To lose one's amniotic fluid a.k.a. ...
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Idiom "fire and forget": first impresson for non-military office person
I am used to idiom "fire and forget" based on its military meaning and I often say something like "we need such fire-and-forget-kind people". My idea is based on the military ...
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on top of the world and over the moon
What the difference between on top of the world and over the moon?
As I understand they both express extreme happiness. Could they be used interchangeably?
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When did the phrases like "move your ass" take on their modern meaning in American English?
I recently saw a western with Kevin Costner (Horizon: An American Story) in which a character said something like "move your ass!" or "get your ass in here!". The phrase seemed ...
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Why are unequipped hands "bare" but unequipped eyes "naked"?
We use "naked eye" to refer to eyes used without any equipment, but "bare hands" to describe hands or feet used without any equipment.
How did these terms come to be this way? Why ...
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What is the origin of the idiom"like stink"?
Cambridge labels the idiom British informal (I have doubts about that, I feel it is also used in the US) and says that:
If someone works like stink, they work extremely hard.
Free.dict gives a more ...
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What's the origin of "laughing all the way to the bank"?
What is the earliest known use of the phrase "laughing all the way to the bank?"
Liberace used the similar "cried all the way to the bank", starting in 1954 and again in his 1973 ...
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What is the origin of the phrase “aiding and abetting”?
In American law regarding crimes (e.g. theft, murder, etc…), there is a locution: to aid and abet.
Merriam-Webster, offers no elucidation for the compound phrase, it limits itself to saying:
aiding ...
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Translating Russian "не то, не то" into English
The Russian language has a funny construct, "не то, не то" (roughly meaning "neither entirely/positively this, nor entirely/positively that") which normally indicates that the ...
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How do you say derogatorily "you should be happy about what I did to you"?
In my native language, you can say “I did something because I think highly of you” or “my doing something is respect for you” (literal translations) as a retort or put-down when somebody criticizes ...
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Can you say “you have no morality” to criticize somebody who’s immoral? [closed]
Can you say “you have no morality” to criticize somebody who’s immoral? (I don’t mean sexually.) I want to use a noun instead of an adjective like “immoral”.
When you want to say somebody has no ...
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