IDIOM OF THE DAY

[rufusredtail]

MARCH

march to (the beat of) a different tune (or drum or drummer) consciously adopt a different approach or attitude to the majority of people; be unconventional.  informal

I The version with drummer comes ultimately from Henry David Thoreau's Walden (1854) : ' if a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer' .

[rufusredtail]

KNOCK

knock spots off

I This expression may refer to shooting out the pips (spots) on a playing card in a pistol shooting competition. Although it is a new found chiefly in British English, the phrase originated in America.

[TBWG]

Go Blow smoke up your ****

Tobacco Smoke Enemas
(1750s – 1810s)

The tobacco enema was used to infuse tobacco smoke into a patient’s rectum for various medical purposes, primarily the resuscitation of drowning victims.

A rectal tube inserted into the anus was connected to a fumigator and bellows that forced the smoke towards the rectum.

The warmth of the smoke was thought to promote respiration.
 
Doubts about the credibility of tobacco enemas led to the popular phrase “blowing smoke up your ass.”
 
 TBWG

[rufusredtail]

PIP

Give someone the pip make some irritated or depressed. informal, dated

I Pip is a disease of poultry or other birds, In the late 15th century the word came to be used, often humorously, of various ill-defined or minor ailments suffered by people and so the informal sense of 'ill humour' developed.

[rufusredtail]

NELLY

not on your nelly  certainly not.

 I  This expression, modelled on the phrase not on your life, originated as not on your nelly duff, which is British rhyming slang for 'puff ', meaning  'breath of life '.

[rufusredtail]

BIKE

 on your bike!    1 go away     2 take action!   British informal

I Sense 2 became a catchphrase in the 1980s Britain, when it was used as an exhortation to the unemployed to show initiative in their attempt to find work.

It was taken from a speech by the Conservative politician Norman Tebbit in which he said of his unemployed father; 'He did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work.'

[DeputyDavid]

BIKE

 on your bike!    1 go away     2 take action!   British informal

I Sense 2 became a catchphrase in the 1980s Britain, when it was used as an exhortation to the unemployed to show initiative in their attempt to find work.

It was taken from a speech by the Conservative politician Norman Tebbit in which he said of his unemployed father; 'He did not riot, he got on his bike and looked for work.'

Having initiative, not lazy  (I think)

[rufusredtail]

HIDE

hide your light under a bushel   keep quiet about your talents or accomplishments.

 i A bushel is a unit of measurement equal to eight gallons; in former times the word also referred to a container able to hold this amount.

The expression has its source in Matthew 5:15 ' neither do men light a candle ,and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick'.

[rufusredtail]

PEAR-SHAPED

go pear-shaped go wrong informal

I This phrase originated as RAF slang, as a humorously exaggerated allusion to the shape of an aircraft that has crashed nose first. Today, however, people probably assume it derives from the idea of a woman gaining weight on her hips.

[rufusredtail]

HAND

make (or lose or spend ) money hand over fist make (or lose or spend) money very rapidly. informal

I This phrase first appeared in the mid 18th century as hand over hand. Found in nautical contexts, it referred to the movement of a person's hands when rapidly climbing a rope or hauling it in. By the mid 19th century hand over hand was being used to mean 'advancing continuously and rapidly', especially of one ship pursuing another. Hand over fist is first recorded in the early 19th century, also in a nautical context, but it was soon used more generally to indicate speed, especially in the handling of money.

[rufusredtail]

GUN

 stick to your guns   refuse to compromise or CHANGE, despite criticism     informal

 I The image here is of a soldier maintaining his position under enemy fire .

[rufusredtail]

REASON

theirs (or ours) not to reason why  it is not someone's place to question a situation, order, or system

I This phrase comes from Tennyson's poem ' The Charge of the Light Brigade' (1854), which describes how, in a notorious incident in the Crimean War, the British cavalry unquestioningly obeyed a suicidal order to ride straight at the Russian guns.

[Speros]

Laughing-stock

Meaning

A figure or object of ridicule and laughter.

Origin

Laughing-stock is now usually written as a single hyphenated word, but it was previously the two-word phrase, 'laughing stock'.

It's moderately old and there are at least two citations of it dating back to the 16th century. John Frith's, An other boke against Rastel, 1533:

"Albeit ... I be reputed a laughing stock in this world."

and Sir Philip Sidney's, An apologie for poetrie, 1533:

"Poetry ... is fallen to be the laughing stocke of children."

The age of the phrase may be the reason that it is often linked with the practice of putting people into stocks as a punishment. The stocks were a means of punishment in use at the time the phrase was coined, by which people were tortured or ridiculed. Victims were held by having their ankles, and occasionally the wrists too, trapped in holes between two sliding boards. The punishment, although not as harsh as the pillory, in which people were confined by the neck, was severe and certainly not intended to be humorous.

[rufusredtail]

NEVER

never-never land an imaginary utopian place or situation.


I This expression is often used with allusion to the imaginary country in J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan (1904). The term was used earlier to denote the remote and unpopulated northern part of the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia (from which, it is implied , a person might never return).

[rufusredtail]

SUN

the sun is over the yardarm it is the time of day when it is permissible to drink alcohol. informal

I This was originally a nautical expression: a yardarm is the outer extremity of a yard, a cylindrical spar slang across a ship's mast for a sail to hang from. The time of day referred to is noon, rather than 6 o'clock in the evening, as is often supposed.