Questions tagged [idioms]
Idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. Use [idiom-requests] if you are searching for an idiom with a particular meaning.
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What is the name for sayings that have come to mean the opposite of what they were originally?
There are a few colloquial sayings that have come to mean the opposite of their original intent perhaps due to being used out of context. For example:
"Pull yourself up by the bootstraps":
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What is the origin of "lame duck" as a political term and, before that, as a financial term?
An article by Mark Leibovich titled "Donald Trump Is a Lamer Duck Than Ever" posted today in The Atlantic, includes the following note on the origin of the term:
Senator Lazarus Powell of ...
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What part of speech are the last words of "all at once", "gone at last", "good at first", etc?
All three words (once, last, first) can be defined as adverbs, adjectives, or nouns with similar definitions for each part of speech for the respective words.
I'm trying to figure out if those words ...
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I'm going to school here (in this school)
Been going to school here for 3 years.
The Mission/Beavis H. S3E9
Is coming possible here, or is go to school as strong an idiom as bring to the table?
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Are there levels of formality? Where (if at all) do corporate jargon as used in businesses and colloquialism fit in? along such a possible spectrum?
Like for example is using corporate jargon, like "a low-hanging fruit" or "circle back" comparable (equally acceptable) to using colloquialisms like "ain't it", "...
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Idiomatic stress: phrasal verbs
According to the Longman Pronunciation Dict. (See Macmillan here too, and the perspective of Multi-word verbs (MWVs))
Like other phases, a phrasal verb (= a verb word and an adverbial
particle) is ...
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Where does the expression “roll with it” come from?
Dame Helen Mirren in a recent interview on aging said:
“It’s much better to age disgracefully! Take it on the chin, and roll with it. You die young, or you get older. There is nothing in between! You ...
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Use of 'interesting state' for pregnancy
Despite my attempts, I found a pitiful lack of information in dictionaries (e.g. Collins) . I am limited to citing the Wiktionary entry for interesting:
(euphemistic) Pregnant. (used with situation ...
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Like in old times
Is it idiomatic to use "like in old times" to mean as we used to?
Come round when you have time. It would be great to hang around like in old times.
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Living long is/longevity is [closed]
Is it idiomatic to say "Living long is luck" to mean "longevity is luck" and "living a long life is luck?" Without adding "good" before "luck" does ...
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Does “as a man” ever mean “as one man” (all together)?
I’ve always understood as one man to mean “all acting together, unanimously” (Cambridge: “If a group of people do something as one man, they do it together at exactly the same time.”)
Recently I came ...
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Is "all/other things being equal" an idiom?
Google tells me an idiom is "a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words".
When I look at the definition of "all/other ...
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What is the origin of "on a (more) serious note"?
The expressions on a serious note and on a more serious note are used to indicate a change from a lighthearted register to a more serious one. A Google search gives many definitions equivalent to this,...
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"On a tangential note", "as a tangential note": "on" or "as"?
The expression "on a tangential note" results in not a single hit in a Google search, but from the restrictive search "a tangential note" the very apparent shortcoming of the ...
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"Can you change me?"
I was at a retail store buying some stuff. As I was standing at the counter to check out, a foreign military person, whom I suspect was with the U.N., walked in, held up a U.S. dollar bill, and asked ...
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