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Welcome to my nostalgic “Word Museum” for hard-boiled idioms and figures of speech that are fading fast. Learn about their origins and meanings and see them used in classic movie and TV clips.

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Frederick Stanley Mockford

“Mayday”

October 30, 2015March 28, 2015 by admin

… is an internationally recognized distress call, sent out by aircraft or ships in life-threatening emergencies.

More Idioms!

Gaslighting — the Opposite of Illumination
“Shirttail Relative” and a Mayor of Chicago
Lots of “Chops”
“Clams”
To “Buy the Farm”
“Peachy Keen”
“Bury the Hatchet” … “Hatchet Man” … “Hatchet Job” …
“A Loose Cannon”
“Saved by the Bell!”
“Close, But No Cigar!”
“Wet Blanket”
“Keystone Cops”
“The Third Degree”
“Small Fry”
“23 Skidoo”
“Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”
“All the Tea in China”
“Mayday”
“To Kick the Bucket”
“Rich as Croesus” “Eureka!” It’s All Greek to Me, Part 2
“Opening Pandora’s Box” “The Midas Touch” … It’s All Greek to Me, Part 1
Living the Life of Reilly…On Easy Street…While Living High off the Hog
“Get Out of Dodge,” “Shuffle Off to Buffalo”
“Three Sheets to the Wind” & “Cut of Your Jib”
“Dead as a Doornail,” “Fit as a Fiddle”
The Cat’s Pajamas, The Cat’s Meow
Jake
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Scot-Free
Palooka
Chatty Cathy
To Fold Like a Cheap Camera
In Cahoots
Whistling Past the Graveyard
Tell it to the Marines!
Hey Rube
Hunky Dory
Cooking with Gas