Meaning of Well Known Phrases

Flaker · 05-04-2013 04:22PM

"Toe the line"

In the english parliament, around the time of Charles the 1st, physical rows were common place.

In order to stop this happening, lines were put on the floor (probably at opposite ends of the room) and one was not allowed to put one's toe over it. That way, they couldn't get to close enough to bate the head of one another.

Hence "toe the line" or "toe the party line".

Cardex · 05-04-2013 04:22PM

Not particularly old or well known but a neat turn of phrase all the same:

Sarchasm: the gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it

(Urban Dictionary)

Mully_2011 · 05-04-2013 04:29PM

"Play it by year" or "Play it by ear" ??

Ray Palmer · 05-04-2013 04:40PM

Mully_2011 wrote: »

"Play it by year" or "Play it by ear" ??

Play it by ear
No sheet music and you play along based on those around you hence we'll "play it by ear" means we will do what we do based on what is happening at the time.

ScumLord · 05-04-2013 04:40PM

Wibbs wrote: »

Indeed, "Cease the day" makes no sense, it's "Seize the day", from the Latin "Carpe diem".

This was also a mistake Kim Jong Un has made recently too and which lead to the current debacle. So it can happen to the best of us.

pitythefool · 05-04-2013 04:51PM

cocobear wrote: »

"Rule of thumb"

Originated with Miller's, they would take the ground flour between their thumb and index finger to test how coarse it was

i thought it was using your thumb as a ruler

pitythefool · 05-04-2013 04:53PM

RGDATA! wrote: »

"so many levels"
(usually means exactly "two levels")

I usually mean exactly what I say too

pitythefool · 05-04-2013 04:58PM

eamonnq wrote: »

Never heard that one before....not sure where it comes from.

It a reference to something becoming typically Irish

stmol32 · 05-04-2013 05:13PM

chakotha wrote: »

I always thought it came from the Trojan horse story too.

Accept a gift without hesitation because questioning the motives (or being too polite to accept) would be akin to staring into the mouth of the Trojan horse and getting battered by Greeks.

I'll be honest with you man, I just pulled that out of me arse for a laugh.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 06-04-2013 01:40AM

This is one with more recent origin, A made man, somebody who's set up for life (usually in the financial sense).

The phrase originally was a well made man and was hijacked by the mob. The phrase describes a full member of La Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian/Italian Mafia. Once an associate proves himself to the Don, usually by carrying out a hit they are considered for induction. Becoming a made man means that you now feed at the top end of the mob rackets, big money cars suits the whole deal. You're also protected for the rest of your life, nobody can kill a made guy without first clearing it with both the boss of the family and commission. So as long as you follow the rules and such codes as Omerta no harm will befall you.

However the law might catch up to you anyway. :pac:

charlemont · 06-04-2013 02:20AM

fishy fishy wrote: »

going forward

We've turned a corner.

strikes rage into the 99 percent of Irish adults.

A soft landing...We all know how that turned out..

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/is-a-soft-landing-the-silver-lining-in-property-bubble-deflation-26353450.html

Or the classic cheapest bailout in the world line..

B.A._Baracus · 06-04-2013 02:24AM

pitythefool wrote: »

All over the shop

it came from messy work places

it is simply an expression for disorganised.

the shop in question may be work-shop rather than retail outlet

I don't like your username :mad:

Vicar in a tutu · 06-04-2013 02:25AM

The bees knees - the business.

Ihatecuddles-old · 06-04-2013 02:26AM

Vicar in a tutu wrote: »

The bees knees - the business.

Cats pajamas!

December2012 · 06-04-2013 02:29AM

Sweet FA - Sweet Fanny Adams =

Fanny Adams was a real person, a young girl who went missing. It was feared that she had been chopped up into pieces.

If you we're given meat, lets say, a leg of lamb, it would be said that it might not be lamb at all, but a limb from the body of sweet Fanny Adams.

Donne · 06-04-2013 09:34AM

For a foreign one: Fremdschaemen, being embarssed for someone else's f*ck up

mattjack · 06-04-2013 09:56AM

Get your finger out .

An old naval gunnery saying.
Years ago when cannon were used on old warships , navy gunners used pour gun powder in a opening on the top of the barrel of their cannon , they then stuck their finger in to stop rain/sea spray getting at it.
Just before they opened fire an officer used roar across the gun decks ....

GET YOUR FINGER OUT.

donegal_road · 06-04-2013 10:26AM

a 'Dead Ringer' for someone

years ago, there was such a fear of waking up in the grave after being mistakenly pronounced dead that some people requested that they be buried with a bell on the headstone with the pulling chain leading down into the coffin, so in the event of waking up in the grave they could be saved by alerting passers by with the bell.
The phrase dead ringer came from this. Someone who bore a close resemblance to a deceased person would be referred to as a 'dead ringer' for that person.

keith16 · 06-04-2013 11:08AM

Back in the "day", beer and ale was served in measures of pints and also "quarts". Shortened to Ps & Qs.

Spilling these on other "punters" could result in brawls - hence the term to "mind your Ps & Qs".

Also the word POSH originates from also back in the "day" when travelling was not possible in the aeroplanes. The rich people would sail on the port side on the journey out and on the starboard on the way home so as to avoid / avail of the sunshine.

Port Out Starboard Home. Posh.

baalthor · 06-04-2013 11:51AM

"No sh1t Sherlock"

This phrase originated with the first popular edition of Conan Doyle's famous detective novels.

In the Case if the Clergyman's Orangutan, Holmes seeks out Dr. Watson to obtain medical advice.

As is well known, Holmes regularly used cocaine to boost his powers of deduction but cocaine is also a very binding drug so he was in great discomfort when he visited the doctor.

Of course the phrase above is not used in the book, in answer to Watson's enquiry as to the nature of his illness he replied: "Alimentary, my dear doctor"

As this was one the first novels to be read by ordinary people in large numbers, Holmes predicament became a great source of popular amusement and so his nick-name was born.

jkell061 · 06-04-2013 12:02PM

keith16 wrote: »

Back in the "day", beer and ale was served in measures of pints and also "quarts". Shortened to Ps & Qs.

Spilling these on other "punters" could result in brawls - hence the term to "mind your Ps & Qs".

That's what I always thought, but then when I told someone before they corrected me saying it was to do with the old printing press and letters being backways or something so mind your p's and q's. I still maintain the pints and quarts though

dxhound2005 · 06-04-2013 12:20PM

Plazaman wrote: »

In days of yore, most sailing ships had cannons and beside each cannon was a supply of iron cannon balls. These cannon balls were always stacked ferrero rocher style in a pyramid shape but at their base was a triangle made of brass, known as a monkey, to keep them in place.

In cold weather when the metal triangle contracted it caused the cannon balls to fall off.

Hence the phrase : "It would freeze the balls off a brass monkey".

These people don't agree with that.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/cold%20enough%20to%20freeze%20the%20balls%20off%20a%20brass%20monkey.html

Some references say that the brass triangles that supported stacks of iron cannon-balls on sailing ships were called monkeys and that in cold weather the metal contracted, causing the balls to fall off. The derivation of this phrase is difficult enough to determine without such tosh, so let's get that oft-repeated story out of the way first:

06-04-2013 02:45PM

"One for the road"

Back in the times of public executions in England, specifically London, the condemned man was taken in a horse drawn wagon from Newgate prison heading west down what is now oxford street to the public gallows at Tyburn ("the Tyburn tree"). The wagon would stop at the last public inn and a tankard of ale passed through the bars of the cage before the last couple of hundred yards of the journey was completed, hence giving the convicted man one last drink in the back of the wagon, or "one for the road".

"On the wagon"

The coach rider himself transporting the prisoner had to be sober and wasn't allowed the drink. When offered he would reply "no thanks, I can't. I'm on the wagon".

dxhound2005 · 06-04-2013 02:53PM

Deleted User wrote: »

"One for the road"

Back in the times of public executions in England, specifically London, the condemned man was taken in a horse drawn wagon from Newgate prison heading west down what is now oxford street to the public gallows at Tyburn ("the Tyburn tree"). The wagon would stop at the last public inn and a tankard of ale passed through the bars of the cage before the last couple of hundred yards of the journey was completed, hence giving the convicted man one last drink in the back of the wagon, or "one for the road".

"On the wagon"

The coach rider himself transporting the prisoner had to be sober and wasn't allowed the drink. When offered he would reply "no thanks, I can't. I'm on the wagon".

There are alternative explantations given here:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/270300.html

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/on-the-wagon.html

G Power · 06-04-2013 03:00PM

he'd be a horse of a man if he'd a stump o' a tail and could $hite walkin'!!

pitythefool · 06-04-2013 06:55PM

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

I don't like your username :mad:

I dont like to fly

blue4ever · 06-04-2013 07:06PM

One for clarity: a climbdown is sometimes referred to as 'eating humble pie', which is incorrect. The origional was to 'eat umble pie', as umble was the offal of venison and only consumed by the peasantry.

mathepac · 06-04-2013 07:14PM

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

"To put the kibosh on..." means to put an end to something.

Most likely derived from the Irish "caip bháis", referring to the black cap a judge would put on before sentencing someone to death.

Kibosh - Hebrew, a restraint

goose2005 · 06-04-2013 09:11PM

Deleted User wrote: »

"One for the road"

Back in the times of public executions in England, specifically London, the condemned man was taken in a horse drawn wagon from Newgate prison heading west down what is now oxford street to the public gallows at Tyburn ("the Tyburn tree"). The wagon would stop at the last public inn and a tankard of ale passed through the bars of the cage before the last couple of hundred yards of the journey was completed, hence giving the convicted man one last drink in the back of the wagon, or "one for the road".

"On the wagon"

The coach rider himself transporting the prisoner had to be sober and wasn't allowed the drink. When offered he would reply "no thanks, I can't. I'm on the wagon".

no, it's in old timey America - people would drink water from the wagon that came around, rather than beer.

cocobear wrote: »

"Rule of thumb"

Originated with Miller's, they would take the ground flour between their thumb and index finger to test how coarse it was

no, it means using your thumb to measure out inches of material.

pitythefool · 08-04-2013 10:16AM

Don't try to teach your Grandma to suck eggs

Don't offer advice to someone who has more experience than oneself.

Meaning of Well Known Phrases

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