IDIOM OF THE DAY

[Speros]

Peeping Tom

Meaning

A voyeur. A man who furtively observes naked or sexually active people for his own gratification.

Origin

The name comes from the legend of Lady Godiva's naked ride through the streets of Coventry, in order to persuade her husband to alleviate the harsh taxes on the town's poor. The story goes that the townsfolk agreed not to observe Godiva as she passed by, but that Peeping Tom broke that trust and spied on her.

[Speros]

Baker's dozen

Meaning

Thirteen or, more rarely, fourteen.

Origin

It's widely believed that this phrase originated from the practice of medieval English bakers giving an extra loaf when selling a dozen in order to avoid being penalized for selling short weight.

[rufusredtail]

RITZ
put on the ritz make a show of luxury or extravagance.

i The hotels in Paris, London, and New York founded by the Swiss-born hotelier Ce'sar Ritz (1850-1918) became synonymous with great luxury. This expression dates from the heyday of these grand hotels in the early 20th century.

[sao baht]

Here's some that sound rude.........but aren't 

In the pink........ If you are in very good health, you are in the pink.( I love being in the pink  )

A rude awakening ...... when you have a severe shock when you discover the truth of a situation ( Happens to me most mornings  )

In the bag........ If something is in the bag, it is certain that you will get it or achieve it (  Nookie likes to slip into a bag  )

In a tight spot......... If you're in a tight spot, you're in a difficult situation. ( don't you love it when its tight  )

In full swing....... If things are in full swing, they have been going for a sufficient period of time to be going well and very actively. ( need I say more  )

[Speros]

The face that launched a thousand ships

Meaning

A reference to the mythological figure Helen of Troy (or some would say, to Aphrodite). Her abduction by Paris was said to be the reason for a fleet of a thousand ships to be launched into battle, initiating the Trojan Wars.

[sao baht]

Over the moon


Meaning ......Very happy or delighted.

Origin

This phrase has been part of the language for more than a century. It has become more widely used in the past twenty or thirty years, since it was adopted by English football (no, not soccer please - the game is called football) managers when interviewed after 'the boys' managed a victory.

The increased use of televised post-match interviews and hours of studio commentary during the 1970s brought many football managers before the cameras. These days such men are likely to be cultured and erudite Frenchmen or Spaniards. Before that they were usually British ex-footballers who had left schools in the English or Scottish back streets early to play football. It's fair to say that many of them have little interest in the finer points of English grammar.

Two of the best-known English football managers of recent years, who have maintained the English tradition with their engagingly entertaining way of mangling the language, are Ron Atkinson and Terry Venables. The list of quotations from them is long and includes:

"The Spaniards have been reduced to aiming aimless balls into the box." (Atkinson)

"If you can't stand the heat in the dressing room, get out of the kitchen." (Venables)

"If Glenn Hoddle said one word to his team at half time, it was concentration and focus." (Atkinson)

 "I felt a lump in my throat as the ball went in." (Venables)

The humorous magazine Private Eye picked up on these and began publishing them in its Colemanballs column. The name was taken from the sports commentator David Coleman, who could give even the managers a run for their money:

"Nottingham have now lost six matches in a row without winning." (Coleman)

It was really Private Eye's lampooning that made this phrase popular. There is an associated phrase, 'sick as a parrot', which was used when 'the boys' lost. This has a much shorter pedigree and came to the public's consciousness following the League Cup Final of 1978. Phil Thompson, who played for the strong favourites Liverpool Football Club ended up on the losing side, being beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest. In a televised interview after the match he announced that "I'm as sick as a parrot".

The phrase, which may well have been coined by an anonymous Liverpool wag and repeated by Thompson, was probably influenced the the famous Monty Python 'Dead Parrot' sketch, which was broadcast in 1969 and could be quoted verbatim by many in the UK at the time and which remains one of the most popular sketches ever shown on British TV.

Well, that's the last thirty years. The actual origin of 'over the moon' is much earlier and, although not widely used before the 1970s, it would have been familiar to all who grew up in Britain in the 20th century. Why, because the source was included, as High Diddle Diddle, in the influential 16th century nursery rhyme collection, Mother Goose's Melody; or Sonnets from the Cradle, circa 1760:

High diddle diddle,
 The Cat and the Fiddle,
 The Cow jump'd over the Moon,
 The little dog laugh'd to see such Craft,
 And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.

As with most nursery rhymes, the first appearance in print may well post-date the first use by years, centuries even - children didn't write their rhymes down. The text of such rhymes was subject to a 'Chinese whispers' effect over all of that time and, whatever the origin may have been, the version passed down to us is quite probably nonsense and isn't easily interpreted. What is clear is that the 'over the moon' line is a reference to excitement and energy. That's evidenced by one of the earliest allusions to the phrase in print - Charles Molloy's The Coquet, or, The English Chevalier, 1718:

"Tis he! I know him now: I shall jump over the Moon for Joy!"

phrases.org.uk

[Nobby]

 burn to A. CRISP
to burn something totally or very badly. The cook burned the meat to a crisp.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
 

[sao baht]

Lap dog

A lap dog is a person who is eager to please another at the expense of his or her own needs in order to maintain a position of privilege or favor

Backstabber

This idiom or expression like phrase means:

One who lies in your face.
 One who hurts you when you’re not looking.
 One who assures you of his or her support, but does not support you when you turn your back.


 

[Nobby]

lap dog
1. A small dog kept as a pet.
2. Informal One eager to do another's bidding, especially in order to maintain a position of privilege or favor: "a bunch of intellectual lap dogs for anybody who holds a big job in government" (Mike Barnicle).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[sao baht]

Loose lips sink ships

Meaning......Unguarded talk may give useful information to the enemy.

Origin

This phrase was coined as a slogan during WWII as part of the US Office of War Information's attempt to limit the possibility of people inadvertently giving useful information to enemy spies. The slogan was actually 'Loose Lips Might Sink Ships. This was one of several similar slogans which all came under the campaigns basic message - 'Careless Talk Costs Lives'.

The slogan was in use by 1942, as this example from the Maryland paper The News, May 1942 shows:

At countians [attendees at the local county school] registered in the high school lobby before the opening of the meeting, they were surrounded on all sides by placards bearing such admonitions as "Loose Lips Might Sink Ships", "Defense On The Sea Begins On The Shore", "Defense In The Field Begins In The Factory" and patriotic creeds and slogans.

phrases.org.uk

[rufusredtail]

CUT
Cut and run make a speedy or sudden departue from an awkward or hazardous situation rather than confront or deal with . informal

i Cut and run was originally an early 18th century nautical phrase, meaning 'sever the anchor cable because of an emergency and make sail immediately'

[Speros]

A dark horse

Meaning

Someone who emerges to prominence; being previously little known.

Origin

This was originally horse racing parlance. A dark horse was one that wasn't known to the punters and was difficult to place odds on. The figurative use later spread to other fields and has come to apply to anyone who comes under scrutiny but is previously little known.

Benjamin Disraeli provides the earliest known reference to the phrase in The Young Duke, 1831:

"A dark horse, which had never been thought of ... rushed past the grand stand in sweeping triumph."

[rufusredtail]

TINKER
not give (or care) a tinker's curse (or cuss or damn) not care at all. informal

i In former times, tinkers (itinerant menders of pots, pans, and other metal utensils) had a reputation for using bad language. The expression is often shortened to    not give a tinker's.

[Speros]

Shuffle off this mortal coil

Meaning

Die.

Origin

From Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602:

"What dreames may come, When we haue shufflel'd off this mortall coile, Must giue vs pawse."

In Shakespeare's time 'coil', or coile', or coyle', meant 'fuss' or 'bustle'. That usage was recorded in Michael Drayton's Idea, the shepheards garland, 1593:

"You Will, and Will not, what a coyle is here?"

Shakespeare also used it prior to his 'mortal coil' expression, in King John, 1595:

"I am not worth this coyle that's made for me."

[Speros]

No way, Jose

Meaning

Absolutely not; never.

Origin

This slang expression originated in America sometime around the 1960s. In Chapman and Kipfer's Dictionary of American Slang 'no way' is listed as a 1960s phrase and 'no way Jose' as originating in Village Voice. Unfortunately, they don't present any other details so I can't check that assertion. The first verified citation I've found is from The Washington Post, December 1979:

"I've got nothing against robots. But no way, Jose, is this guy going to win."

Why Jose? There's no reason to think that Jose was an actual person. The name was probably chosen for the rhyme with 'no way', which predates the longer phrase.