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DISAPPEARING IDIOMS

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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International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington

“Mayday”

October 30, 2015March 28, 2015 by admin

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

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Categories More Idioms! Tags Frederick Stanley Mockford, idoms, International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, June/July 1940 National Radio News, may day, mayday, Maypole, the movie Airplane Leave a comment

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”
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  • “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
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