Idioms, Phrases, and Acronyms of the English Language

[AlliFlowers]

Tighter 'n Dick's hatband.

Don't ask me what it means, but the in-laws use it regularly. They have a LOT of expressions that I've never heard used anywhere else.

 

[elf69]

Tighter 'n Dick's hatband.

Don't ask me what it means, but the in-laws use it regularly. They have a LOT of expressions that I've never heard used anywhere else.

Ah I know one similar, tighter than a ducks ass!

either something so tight liquid cannot escape or get in...
or more often used as someone who refuses to spend money to repair/replace something and keeps using it broken

 

[Apple fanboy]

But it’s saving you the work!
[doublepost=1528895635][/doublepost]Something is Rotten in (the State of) Denmark- From a Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, when this is said, after the ghost of Hamlet’s Father is seen. A reference that something is wrong frequently used with political overtones can be applied to any situation where something out of order, or nefarious is taking place. Frequently used with “the State of” left out.
https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-expression-something-is-rotten-in-Denmark-come-from

Oh agreed it's easier, but not the most amazing invention.

Especially if like me you don't eat bread!

 

[Huntn]

Oh agreed it's easier, but not the most amazing invention.

Especially if like me you don't eat bread!

Got me there!

 

[Apple fanboy]

Got me there!

Well you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse!

 

[Mousse]

Something is Rotten in (the State of) Denmark- From a Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, when this is said, after the ghost of Hamlet’s Father is seen. A reference that something is wrong frequently used with political overtones can be applied to any situation where something out of order, or nefarious is taking place. Frequently used with “the State of” left out.
https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-expression-something-is-rotten-in-Denmark-come-from

Also from the same play, a phrase I've heard many times. And I have used it a few times to much satisfaction: Hoist with his own petard. (blown up by his own bomb) I means to have the harm you intended on others inflicted upon yourself. Kids nowadays are more succinct: Karma.

 

[mobilehaathi]

“To lay someone out in lavender” is to give them a scolding.

 

[Lioness~]

Good thread

Will read and learn. Love it. English isn’t 1st language, so.
Eventually, somewhere in the future maybe I’ll contribute.

 

[Apple fanboy]

“To lay someone out in lavender” is to give them a scolding.

Never come across that one.

 

[mobilehaathi]

Did we get “piece of cake”?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Did we get “piece of cake”?

More WW2 slang, if memory serves, from the RAF. Meaning something was very easy.

 

[0388631]

Tighter 'n Dick's hatband.



Don't ask me what it means, but the in-laws use it regularly. They have a LOT of expressions that I've never heard used anywhere else.

Canadians or Minnesotans?

tighter than a ducks ass!

Read this once or twice in the last few years. Comes up in old films from the 40s and 50s. Not sure of its origin. I've heard variations of it.

More WW2 slang, if memory serves, from the RAF. Meaning something was very easy.

Popularized, I think. A lot of modern slang was popularized during the war by aces and soldiers. Easy peasy lemon squeezy was popularized through that commercial in the decade or two following. "Easy as pie" is a very strong Americanism in regards to spoken word, and still remains popular today. As far as I know, "easy peasy lemon squeezy" reached critical mass and then died off.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Derek Robinson wrote a very good novel with the title "A Piece of Cake" about a fighter squadron in the RAF in the early years of the Second World War - an extremely good TV series was subsequently made based on the book.

 

[AlliFlowers]

Canadians or Minnesotans?

Neither. This is a family who has never left the deepest south, other than the menfolk who went overseas to serve in wars.

Southerners are a strange lot.

 

[LizKat]

“To lay someone out in lavender” is to give them a scolding.

My grandparents used that expression, and were also capable of demonstrating it without using the phrase. We learned roughly what the expression translated to by hearing grandma say something like "Well I guess he must have been laid out in lavender for that..." and grandpa would say "You could have heard his boss hollering at him from down the next farm".

When I asked later on where the expression had come from, grandma said that dead people were commonly "laid out" in the parlor of a home for neighbors to come pay their respects, and that people put flowers about, and dried herbs like thyme and lavender even in the coffin, all to ensure there were no untoward odors from either the deceased or all those sweaty mourners coming through and wearing their one tweed suit on a summer evening... so that in essence the expression "laid out in lavender" came to mean that someone got yelled at until they were practically dead or at the very least thoroughly humbled.

As for the demonstrations though, we kids learned that there were two stages of trouble you could sign up for with an otherwise affable and instructive granddad:

One was fairly minor and just amounted to his saying "That will do now..." and was often followed by a shake of his newspaper and we were off the hook so long as we took our annoying behavior elsewhere.

The other was a major escalation and began as "See here now..." at which point we were in for not only a lecture but distribution of a whole slew of extra chores and sometimes even being marched off by the ear to wherever they were to be done.​

With delight we mimicked our elders sometimes, whispering of a sibling as he was shown a bushel of dried beans to shell or a pile of berries to hull, "Well he sure got laid out in lavender!"

 

[Huntn]

Now, Hawkins, you do me justice with the cap’n. You’re a lad, you are, but you’re as smart as paint. I see that when you first come in.”

Although I’m taking my time reading Treaure Island, and what a treat it is, I absolutely love the pirate lingo. The above phrase caught my attention. Some brief research seems to indicate not only did Stevenson make this up (smart as paint) but he is almost single handedly responsible with what we consider to be pirate talk today along with the help of the likes of Disney.

If you are interested a movie version, I highly recommend the 1990 version staring Charlton Heston and Christian Bale, when he was but a lad and landlubber*, an insult when said by a seafaring man. I have a VHS tape to disk copy of this movie, but I have been forelornly waiting for decades, for a remastered version of this movie to appear. Turner Classic Movies owns it and at this point it seems unlikely.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100813/

It was only one of many versions that have been invented from the 1850s onwards, among them fresh as paint, snug as paint, clever as paint, pretty as paint, and handsome as paint. They’re all similes that draw on some special quality of paint, but smart as paint punningly combines two senses of smart — the idea of new paint being bright and fresh in appearance and that of a person who is quick-witted and intelligent.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sma3.htm

Robert Lewis Stevenson talks like a pirate
https://catherinesherman.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/robert-louis-stevenson-talks-like-a-pirate/

* Does landlubber equal land lover? A quick search did not reveal an answer.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Haven't come across "as smart as paint" used in speech or writing.

But, I have come across "as sharp as a tack" (to describe someone who is bright or clever).

 

[elf69]

I not heard the paint reference either but a few days ago a friend I not seen for a long time described another friend as "he as sharp as a bowling ball is that lad"

My friend who made comment is a 65 year old yorkshire man.

 

[rhett7660]

"Mind your P's and Q's" is one of my favorites.

Mind your pints and quarts... Beer reference that bartenders supposedly said way back in the day.

 

[Matz]

I find the Pittsburgh-ism “redd-up” oddly appealing.
- to clean or straighten up.

Oft used by “Yinzers” and other western Pennsylvanians, including the city government.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Pennsylvania_English

 

[NightGeometry]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, so sorry if I'm repeating.

"Buy the farm." WW1 I believe - he bought the farm. If you go over the top you'll buy the farm. My understanding soldiers were always going to buy a farm when they returned home. But more died than returned home, so buying the farm is a euphemism for dying. See: kick the bucket.

"Gone for a toss." Indian colloquialism, doesn't mean what you may assume it does From cricket.

BOGU - I've heard used at Microsoft. bend over, grease up. Same as Bohica.

 

[rhett7660]

Haven't come across "as smart as paint" used in speech or writing.

But, I have come across "as sharp as a tack" (to describe someone who is bright or clever).

I have come across the "as sharp as a tack", however it was usually used to describe someone who is just the opposite of being bright or clever. Same with, the "sharpest knife in the tool shed" or "sharp as a marble".

 

[chown33]

In cahoots (with).

It means colluding or conspiring with someone else, often with a negative connotation.

The odd thing is that you never see the verb form of this idiom. While "to conspire" and "to collude" often appear as verbs, "to cahoot" never does. You also never see the noun that means "one who performs the action". "Colluder" and "conspirator", sure thing; "cahooter", nope. Finally, the gerund form: conspiring, colluding/collusion, cahooting.

I modestly propose reversing this situation. Use "cahoot" instead of "conspire", "cahooter" instead of "conspirator", and "cahooting" instead of "collusion". I also suggest "cahootion" as an alternative for "conspiracy", although "cahootle" has a certain appeal.

Examples:

From the Nixonian era: "An unindicted co-cahooter"
From the Trumpian era: "Allegations of Russian cahooting"
"A Cahootion of Dunces"
​

I eagerly await the contributions of like-minded cahooters.

 

[LizKat]

Speaking of being in cahoots: as a four or five-year-old in the summertime, I'd be running around blissfully barefoot most of the time and not think about the difference between a kitchen and a parlor, to my grandfather's dismay. He'd rattle his paper and say to my grandma "at least put some shoes on her she comes in here." But my grandmother would always say

"Shoe the horse and shoe the mare
but let the filly run bare today."
​

or later on for one of my brothers then it was "but let the colt run bare while he may."

My granddad was pretty old school about the parlor, where to his mind kids should not only be seen and not heard but not even seen if not properly dressed (and, shod).

I've probably posted here before somewhere that a milestone for me was going in a shoestore and encountering one of those sliding gizmos the salesman applied to my feet to measure them; I was thinking "I'm all grown up now!" ... and within weeks was wishing I could just be barefoot again.

I've thought about that very old nursery rhyme a lot since I grew up. At least in the time of my grandparents' parents, it would not have been just about letting kids have their freedom while they could, but also an instruction on household economics. A kid didn't really need shoes until old enough to go to school.

 

[Ruggy]

I was told that rule of thumb referred to the maximum width of stick you could use to beat a slave. Horrible when you think about it.

Could be, but a thumb was also used to measure an inch. A hand was 4"( the average palm) a yard, from finger tips to nose and a foot was......
[doublepost=1533065101][/doublepost]

"Mind your P's and Q's" is one of my favorites.

Mind your pints and quarts... Beer reference that bartenders supposedly said way back in the day.

There are several claims to the origin of that one but I think the correct version was an instruction to earlyblock type setters as they are easy to confuse, especailly when you look at them back to front.
[doublepost=1533065512][/doublepost]

Love that song -- and the video, which I took as commentary by them about what you just posted.

I've said too much...
I haven't said enough...

[in other words: y'all probably not gonna get this]
​

---

Speaking of ropes: there's an expression called "toe the line" which grammars and dictionaries regard as the correct spelling of the phrase. It means to follow the rules someone else has laid out, and stems from track and field events, for instance, where contestants must place a foot on a mark or line and not cross it before told to go ahead.

There is some confusion or let's say rebellion on this matter, among some who prefer to spell the expression as "tow the line" -- which is meant in a marine sense. For instance, a tugboat which has towing lines attached to it is leading the way. So to be towing a line in that sense is not to obey an order but to give it, to show the way, to lead. I grew up with that understanding of the expression thanks to some boating maniacs in the family. When they said to me "yes young lady I heard you but I'm towing the line here, not you" they didn't mean they were obeying some rule, they meant I had crossed some line they had long since drawn and that I at that moment was in deep, deep water.

Have a confusing day!

I think 'toe the line' referred to bare knuckle boxing where a line was drawn and the contestants had to slug it out 'toe to toe'. A contestant lost when he couldn't get up and toe the line.
[doublepost=1533065670][/doublepost]

Well you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse!

Sows' ears were used as cheap purses. You could open them at the top and the rest made a simple pouch. They are pretty silky feeling if you have ever handled one but clearly, don't look or feel like the real thing.