IDIOM OF THE DAY

[tommynew]

dim as a toc h lamp  not very bright

[erik69]

Dead men tell no tales.
Prov. Dead people will not betray any secrets.
The club members liked to hold their secret meetings in a graveyard, since dead men tell no tales.

Gangster: Mugsy is going to tell the police that we robbed the bank. How can we stop him?
Henchman: Dead men tell no tales.

[erik69]

In spades

Meaning

In abundance; very much.

Origin

In spadesIt's easy to believe that this expression derives from the imagery of digging with spades and that 'in spades' is just short for 'in spadefuls'. However, the spades concerned here aren't the garden tools but the suit of cards. Spades is the highest ranking suits in the game of Contract Bridge, a very popular pastime in the USA in the early 20th century, which is when and where the phrase originated.

Despite the agricultural-sounding name and the shovel-like shape, the suit in cards has nothing directly to do with garden spades. Playing Cards originated in Asia and spread across Europe around the 14th century, arriving in England a little later than in Spain, Italy and Germany.

In spadesThe Italian versions of early cards used the suits Cups, Swords, Coins and Batons, which, on migration to England, became Hearts, Spades, Diamonds and Clubs. The image for Spades on English and French cards looks somewhat like that of the German Acorn or Leaf suits, but its origin is revealed by its name rather than its shape. The Spanish and Italian for sword is 'espada' and 'spada' respectively, hence the suit 'Swords' became anglicized as 'Spades'.

We have been 'calling a spade a spade' for many centuries, but the expression 'in spades' is a 20th century US coinage. The term was often used before that in relation to card games, where Bridge contracts might be entered into in the minor suits of Clubs or Diamonds or, for the higher scores, 'in Hearts' or, best of all, 'in Spades'.

The figurative meaning, that is, the non-cards-related 'very greatly' meaning, isn't found before the 1920s. The American journalist and writer Damon Runyon used the expression that way in a piece for Hearst's International magazine, in October 1929:

"I always hear the same thing about every bum on Broadway, male and female, including some I know are bums, in spades, right from taw."

It isn't possible to be sure that the figurative 'in spades' derives from Bridge, but the coincidence of the time and place of the origin of the expression and the popularity of the card game certainly does suggest a connection.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-spades.html

[rufusredtail]

BOARD

above board   honest; not secret

 I Above board was originally a gambling term, indicating fair play by players who kept their hands above the board (I.e. the table )

[erik69]

Truth will out

Prov. The truth will always be discovered. (Can be used to remark that someone who had been concealing the truth is now revealing it, as in the second example.) The secret poster may think that someone else will be blamed for his crime, but the truth will out.
Ellen: Remember last week, when I told you I bought some shoes? Fred: Yes.... Ellen: Well, before you look at the bill from the shoe store, l ought to tell you that I bought ten pairs. Fred: Aha. The truth will out.

[erik69]

Two today 

"You don't look at the mantlepiece when you're stoking the fire"
 Meaning: don't base your entire judgement of a person on part of that person

and

"Many a fine tune has been played on an old fiddle"
 Meaning: There's still potential enjoyment to be had from something older

 

[erik69]

You can't polish a turd

English

Proverb


Meaning ....... Something inherently bad cannot be improved.


But apparently you can 

[rufusredtail]

STRAW

straws in your hair  a state of insanity

 I In former times, the floors of mental institutions were covered with straw, and so having straw in your hair came to be regarded as a characteristic of a deranged person.

[rufusredtail]

SWATHE

 cut a swathe through   pass through something causing great damage , destruction, or change.

 I A swathe was an area cut by a single sweep of a mower's scythe, and so the width of a strip of grass or corn in this way.

[rufusredtail]

EIGHT

one over the eight     slightly drunk. British informal

 I The idea behind this idiom is that a drinker can reasonably be expected to consume eight glasses of beer without becoming drunk.

The expression was originally armed forces' slang from the early 20th century.

[rufusredtail]

CHUMP

off your chump  crazy. British informal

I The literal  sense of chump meaning 'a broad, thick block of wood' led in the mid 19th century to its humorous use to mean 'head', with the implication of ' blockhead'.

[rufusredtail]

PIT
 be the pits  be extremely bad or the worst of its kind.   informal

I Pits is a mid 20th-century informal term for 'armpits' and has connotations of body odour; from this it came to refer generally to something regarded as bad or unpleasant.

[rufusredtail]

PHUT

go phut fail to work properly or at all. informal

I Phut is usually considered to be imitative of a dull, abrupt sound, like that made by a rifle or a machine breaking down. In fact , its earliest recorded use is by Rudyard Kipling in the late 19th century, and the context makes it likely that it was an Anglo-Indian word from Hindi and Urdu  phatna meaning 'to burst'.

[rufusredtail]

TRIVET

right as a trivet  perfectly all right ; in good health.   British informal

 I A trivet is an iron tripod placed over a fire for a cooking pot or kettle to stand on. It is used in this expression to represent firmness and steadiness.

[rufusredtail]

cut the Gordian knot    solve or remove a problem in a direct or forceful way, rejecting gentler or more indirect methods.


I The knot referred to is that with which Gordius, king of ancient Phrygia (in Asia Minor), fastened the yoke of his wagon to the pole.
Its complexity was such that it gave rise to the legend that whoever could undo it would become the ruler of Asia.
When Alexander the Great passed that way en route to conquer the East he is said simply to have severed the knot with his sword.