Mar
31
2016
Billy: Wow, that was close. Just when I thought the cops would see us, they got distracted by the sound of the bell on Margo’s cat’s collar.
Tom: Yeah, we were saved by the bell. Literally.
The idiom saved by the bell expresses the idea that someone or something is rescued from a dire outcome by a timely occurrence, generally speaking, at the last possible moment, i.e., in the nick of time. A close shave. Continue reading
no comments | tags: Antoine Joseph Wiertz, boxing ring bell, Edgar Allan Poe, Franz Vester, idiom, Improved Burial Case, Inhumation précipitée, Joe Palooka, Marquess of Queensberry rules, safety coffins, saved by the bell, taphephobia, The Bells, The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, The Phrase Finder, The Premature Burial | 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.
Continue reading
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.”
Continue reading
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!