Oct
30
2015
How would somebody describe a “wet blanket?” Usually it is a person, although sometimes it can be a thing (such as a philosophy, organization, or an entire community or environment) that can always be counted on to spoil the fun or dampen the enjoyment of others.
In other words, a party-pooper, a spoilsport, a killjoy, a “Debbie Downer,” or a real “pill” (an expression my wife picked up in the course of her East Coast childhood).
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no comments | tags: Edgar Allan Poe, EduEduOnline Szkoła JezykowaJezykowa, Godey’s Lady’s Book and Magazine, idiom, Joe Btfsplk, Lil’ Abner, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Online Etymology Dictionary, Private Sad Sack, Washington Irving, Wet Blanket, Yank magazine | posted in More Idioms!
Oct
29
2015
They’re wild, they’re zany. They are more than a hundred years old. They come from a time before women had the right to vote and cars had to be hand-cranked to start. And yet the Keystone Cops live on, at least as a figure of speech.

The Keystone Cops.
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1 comment | tags: Adam Kessel, Al Jolson, Benny Hill, Bing Crosby, Charles Bauman, Charlie Chaplin, Don’t Change Your Husband, Footageworld.com, Getting Acquainted, Gloria Swanson, idiom, Keystone Cops, Keystone Studios, Mabel Normand, Mack Sennett, Marie Dressler, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, The Jazz Singer, W.C. Fields, Yakety Sax | posted in More Idioms!
May
11
2015
To give someone the “third degree” is to subject a person to an intensive and prolonged police interrogation that could include the use of physical force and/or mental torture for the purpose of obtaining confessions, testimonies, and other information.
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1 comment | tags: Freemason, idiom, Laura, Masons’ Third Degree, The Lego Movie, The Third Degree | posted in More Idioms!
May
3
2015
The slang term “small fry” is used to denote a person or thing as juvenile, somebody who is not fully developed, or is insignificant.
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3 comments | tags: Crockett, Davy Crockett, Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, idiom, Max Fleischer cartoon "Small Fry", Sing You Sinners, small fry, Tour Down East | posted in More Idioms!
Apr
11
2015
… Like “amscray,” “cheese it,” or “beat it,” “23 skidoo” is an American slang phrase dating from the early part of the 20th century that is associated with leaving a difficult, dangerous, or tricky situation quickly.
For example: ”Let’s 23 skidoo before the cops come!” Or: “Hey, youse two … 23 skidoo! I don’t wanna see yer mugs in this saloon no more.”
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3 comments | tags: 23 skidoo, American slang, amscray, Bowery Bugs, Bugs Bunny, cheese it, Flatiron Building, idiom, Justin Ferate, Keith Godard, New York City", Thomas A. Edison Studio, untappedcities.com, “What Happened on Twenty-Third Street | posted in More Idioms!
Apr
7
2015
To choose between two, in some way equally problematic, situations.
Hmmm. To be face down Old Nick himself, evil incarnate, on one hand, or, on the other hand, the endless danger of the fathomless, roiling sea… sounds harrowing. But actually the choices represented by this idiom are pretty mild, and the phrase is usually used in the spirit of fun or for dramatic effect.
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1 comment | tags: Brainwashed, Cab Calloway, George Harrison, Harlem’s Cotton Club, idiom, love ballad Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen, The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, The Phrase Finder | posted in More Idioms!
Mar
30
2015
An extravagant exaggeration, signifying that which is of uncountable and inestimable value. The phrase is used in a comparison to indicate someone or something that is of even greater worth.
“That’s Bess, over there. She’s the best and I wouldn’t trade her for all the tea in China.”
“You could give me all the tea in China and I still wouldn’t leave Brooklyn.”
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no comments | tags: all the tea in China, idiom, Kai Fang Tea Trading Company, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Phrase Finder, Tupelo Honey, Van Morrison | posted in More Idioms!
Apr
22
2014
To kick the bucket means, quite simply, to die.
It’s a totally informal expression; a mildly disrespectful, slightly humorous euphemistic slang term that at least in my experience is used to take some of the sting out of death.
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no comments | tags: idiom, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Jimmy Durante, to kick the bucket | posted in More Idioms!
Apr
2
2014
If you’ve read my earlier blog entry It’s All Greek to Me, Part 1, you’ll see that a handful of figures of speech still in use refer to Ancient Greek culture, history, arts, writings and mythology.
But what I was lamenting in Part 1 was that fewer and fewer Americans know the backstory of these idioms. And without that knowledge, eventually these expressions, rich in culture and history, will fade away.
Which is too bad, because not only will we lose some really fascinating figures of speech, it also means that before that happens a lot of us will have already lost a valuable part of our cultural heritage.
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2 comments | tags: Archimedes, Back to the Future, Christopher Lloyd, Confessio amantis, hydraulic screw, Idioms, It’s All Greek to Me, John Gower, Mr. Peabody, naval claw, Rocky and His Friends, The Eureka Effect, Way Back Machine, “Doc” Emmett L. Brown, “Eureka!”, “Rich as Croesus” | posted in More Idioms!