IDIOM OF THE DAY

[sao baht]

Jamaw     

[Alan]

Hook, Line and Sinker


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Look up hook, line, and sinker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
 

The Hook, Line and Sinker are the three essential pieces of fishing tackle in angling. In the English language, the phrase 'to swallow something "hook, line and sinker" ' is an idiomatic expression to describe a situation where a person or group accepts wholesale and uncritically an idea or set of beliefs

Sorry I could not resist!

[rufusredtail]

TURN A BLIND EYE
Pretend not to notice.

i This phrase is said to be a reference to Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) who lifted a telescope to his blind eye at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801), thereby ensuring that he failed to see his superior,s signal to discontinue the action.

[sao baht]

TARRED WITH THE SAME BRUSH

 "Someone who shares the sins or faults of another, though possibly to a lesser degree, is tarred with the same brush. The saying may have something to do with the tarred-and-feathered criminals , but the reference is probably to the tarring of sheep. Owners of a flock of sheep, which can't be branded, used to mark their wool all in the same place with a brush dipped in tar to distinguish them from sheep of another flock. It is said that the red ochre was used to make the mark and that brushing sheep with tar served to protect them against ticks."

[rufusredtail]

A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH

a declaration or confirmation that someone is healthy or something is in good condition.
i In the mid 18th century, a bill of health was an official certificate given to the master of a ship on leaving port;if clean, it certified that there was no infection either in the port or on board the vessel.

[Speros]

COVENTRY
SEND  SOMEONE TO COVENTRY
I This expression,which dates from the mid 18 century,is thought by some to stem from the extreme unpopularity of soldiers stationed in Coventry, who were cut off socially by the citizens. Another suggestion is that the phrase arose because Royalist prisioners were sent to Coventry during the English Civil War , the city being staunchly Parliamentarian

i thought the meaning was from the trade Guilds of London during the 15-17th centuries, where by a member (tradesman) disgraced the guild they would no longer be able to practice his trade in London....Coventry being the closest large city was the obvious next destination for him to use/sell his trade.  I could be wrong..just putting it out there.

[rufusredtail]

Thank you Speros , All quotes are from Oxford university press published second edition 2004.

[Speros]

Thank you Speros , All quotes are from Oxford university press published second edition 2004.

Might have to look up Wikipedia ...... for second opinion

[sao baht]

Two for today 

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

The man always said to do as he says and not as he does because his advice was always better than his actions.
Ring any bell anybody 

Two Faced

marked by deliberate deceptiveness especially by pretending one set of feelings and acting under the influence of another; "she was a deceitful scheming little thing"- Israel Zangwill; "a double-dealing double agent"; "a double-faced infernal traitor and schemer"- W.M.Thackeray

[sao baht]

There are two sides to every story 

Meaning.....two people tell different stories of the same event, compare notes

With some people though .....there is their side and then there is their side 

[Nobby]

Gone fishing

 If someone has gone fishing, they are not very aware of what is happening around them.

[sao baht]

Another Two 

Ass Licker
someone who flatters for personal gain

Fish Out of Water
a feeling that you don't belong in the place where you are 

[tommynew]

As happy as a pig in s--t  (don't know the origin)

doubting thomas (biblical)

[sao baht]

"I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"

..... is the title of a 1919 song about a consummate dreamer who can't turn them into reality.

A bit like a West Ham fan I know   

[sao baht]

Gone fishing

 If someone has gone fishing, they are not very aware of what is happening around them.

I would say you was wrong there Nobby 

I would say 'Gone Fishing ' means getting away from the humdrum, routine of life and doing something interesting or even taking a little break from the normal routine.A bit like a Shopkeeper putting up a sign 'Gone Fishing'..meaning I am taking a little break and will be back soon.


Gone for a burton

Meaning

No longer functional - a reference to a person who had died or an item that was broken.
Origin

There are numerous suggestions as to the origin of this British phrase, and I suppose that is a another way of saying that no one is entirely sure how it originated. It dates from mid 20th century UK and the first reference to it in print is a definition in The New Statesman, August 1941:

"Go for a Burton, crash."

The source is almost certainly to be the winner of a close-run race between two Burtons; the Staffordshire town of Burton upon Trent, or Sir Montague Burton the tailor - more on them later. The roll call of commonly repeated suggested derivations is quite long, so I'll also list a couple of the long shots:

- A burton (also called a Spanish Burton) was a block and tackle mechanism used on Royal Navy ships. It was reputedly complex and difficult to use and any mariner who wasn't where he was expected to be was said to have 'gone for a burton'. 'Burton' is defined in William Falconer's An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, 1769:

"Burton, a ... small tackle, formed by two blocks or pulleys ... generally employed to tighten the shrouds of the top-masts."

- 'A-burton' was the term used to describe a form of stowage on a ship. Again, we have a definition - in Arthur Young's Nautical Dictionary, 1846:

"A-burton, Casks are said to be stowed a-burton, when placed athwartships [from side to side across the ship] in the hold."

There really isn't much to commend these explanations apart from the word 'burton'. They are both very early citations for a phrase that wasn't known before the 1940s. Without conclusive proof we can't completely discount them, but it does seem reasonable to put them at the back of the field. That leaves us the two more credible front runners:

1. To 'go for a burton' refers to the beer brewed in the Midlands town of Burton-upon-Trent, which was and still is famous for its breweries. RAF pilots who crashed, especially those who crashed into the sea, i.e. 'in the drink', were said to have 'gone for a burton'. Some commentators have referred to a pre-WWII advert for Burton's Ale, in which a place at table was vacant and the missing person was said to have 'gone for a Burton', i.e. gone to the pub for a drink. That would be a very strong candidate if only any record of the adverts were to be found - and surely they would be evident if they ever existed. Until any do come to light it's reasonable to call the said adverts mythical.

2. 'Go for a burton' is a reference to the suits made by Montague Burton, who supplied the majority of the demobilization suits that British servicemen were given on leaving service after WWII. (Note: Monty is also a contender as the source of the Full Monty). Any serviceman who was absent could have been said to have 'gone for a burton'. This does seem the less likely of the two explanations, as it doesn't quite match the meaning of the phrase. 'Gone for a burton' was used to mean dead, not merely absent, and Montague Burton didn't supply shrouds, as far as I know.

What is known for sure is that the term was popularised by the RAF around the time of WWII, evidenced by the fact that all the early citations of it come from that date and context. It migrated to the USA quite quickly and in June 1943 a story titled Husky Goes Down for a Burton appeared in Boys' Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America:

[Gone down for a Burton] In the R.A.F. it's the gentle way of saying that an aviator has been killed in operation.

This phrase is now rather archaic and began fading from general use during the later part of the 20th century. It hasn't quite 'gone for a burton' but it is certainly well on its way.

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