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Sayings you never understand
- Thread starter stingray2112
- Start date
I first heard this explanation from a guy I worked with who's dad was a WWII air flier. Don't you think "the full nine yards" has more of a ring than "all 648" or however many rounds were in one of those belts? How it slips off the tongue is why these things outlast their common usage meanings.
Actually, it means you can't have it both ways. E.g., be married and screw around.
If you eat your cake, you no longer have a pretty cake that you can show off. So you can't have the best of both worlds.
It depends how it's said. You can say "I could care less" when it's obvious you're being sarcastic like Geez, I could REALLY care less,
or when you're being literal you can say "I couldn't care less" 
"I can't win for losing" always toasted a few brain cells for me...
How about: "If I were shooting for S***, I wouldn't catch a whiff!".
I'm guessing it pertains to bad luck, but I don't know for sure.
I'm guessing it pertains to bad luck, but I don't know for sure.
my grandpa would always say this to my aunt, dad, and aunt when they were little. they would say "I want this" and "I want that" referring to a toy or something and he would say "Want in one hand, s*it in the other, see which one fills up the fastest"
"horse feathers" seems to confuse a lot of people. I use it a lot, but I usually just get a bunch of weird looks haha.
One I never quite got was "clear as mud".
One I never quite got was "clear as mud".
Skitch it! said:
See ... Mercury poisoning
Hat makers could be made insane because of mercury that was used
in their trade.
Insane = "Mad"
That's the point.
If someone says "horse feathers" they mean it's complete nonsense. It's deliberately absurd and that's what it refers to... something that's ridiculous."Bobs your uncle". Who's Bob?
I believe that's a reference to a British fellow who had a powerful politician Uncle named Bob, and so the British fellow got away with whatever he wanted (or something like that. there may have been backroom business dealings as well)because of his Uncle Bob. Henceforth, it's used to imply "do what you want" or "it's all good, there won't be negative consequences" cuz if Bob's yer uncle, he'll fix it for you.
If I'm wrong, you may have me killed if you like.
I never understood "and how!" as a statement of agreement.
This is completely wrong. "Bob's your uncle" is kind of a way of saying "and that's how we get there" or "that's how it's done" referring to a process or system of some kind.
One might say: You get to the city by making a right, then coming to the stoplight, making another right, at the intersection make a left onto the interstate and then continuing until you cross the bridge, Bob's your uncle, you're there.
It refers to the fact that explaining one's family tree can be complicated and involves interlocking connections from one thing to the next. If your mom is explaining all the people you're related to, she's drawing little connections to siblings, marriages, offspring, etc and the final connection is "Bob's your uncle".
I'll be in touch with my hitman tomorrow. He's got a sadistic streak and prefers to work slowly as it causes more pain.
- Oct 7, 2000
- 18,619
- 38,939
- Disclosures
- Endorsing artist: Musicman basses
Having never heard this before, I'm guessing yo mama made it up. Can we get her input, Joe?
Asked her at monther's day dinner. Everyone (not only family) at our table said they had heard it, although nobody could adequately explain it. One chance, for each person - was the best they could do. Then they said maybe it was a brooklyn thing. Curious now if anyone ever heard this outside of NY now. "Chance a piece."
It's the opposite of a Frogs ass being water tight. I'm still on the fence as to whether the Pope pees in the woods however.
As to the question posed by the OP, I've always though that Dickens had a pretty good handle on the subject:
Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
That's the point.
This is completely wrong. "Bob's your uncle" is kind of a way of saying "and that's how we get there" or "that's how it's done" referring to a process or system of some kind.
One might say: You get to the city by making a right, then coming to the stoplight, making another right, at the intersection make a left onto the interstate and then continuing until you cross the bridge, Bob's your uncle, you're there.
It refers to the fact that explaining one's family tree can be complicated and involves interlocking connections from one thing to the next. If your mom is explaining all the people you're related to, she's drawing little connections to siblings, marriages, offspring, etc and the final connection is "Bob's your uncle".
I'll be in touch with my hitman tomorrow. He's got a sadistic streak and prefers to work slowly as it causes more pain.
Really? Search it. I just did and it's everywhere...This is what I found...
"The expression is often said to derive from the supposed nepotism of the British Prime Minister Lord (Robert) Salisbury, who appointed a favourite nephew, Arthur Balfour, to several political posts in the 1880s. Balfour had considerable talents and went on to become Prime Minister himself, but his early political appointments were considered inappropriate as he showed no interest in public work and at the time preoccupied himself with philosophy and an active social life. It is unlikely that Arthur Balfour would ever have become a celebrated politician without the patronage of his influential uncle. Piers Brendon, in Eminent Edwardians, 1979, writes:
"... in 1887, Balfour was unexpectedly promoted to the vital front line post of Chief Secretary for Ireland by his uncle Robert, Lord Salisbury."
The link here between an uncle Bob who was Prime Minister and a passport to an easy life is easy to make. In fact, that very neatness has the odour of a folk-etymology."
This thread should just be called:
"Stuff I can't be bothered to search on Google"
Haha! Exactly!
"I showed him where the bear **** in the buckwheat."
It means that you proved someone wrong who was skeptical of you. The phrase doesn't make any sense, at least on its face. Would you really care where a bear did its business?
It means that you proved someone wrong who was skeptical of you. The phrase doesn't make any sense, at least on its face. Would you really care where a bear did its business?
Mad as a hatter, has something to do with haberdashery, and the hat lining or some toll they used containing mercury, which drove them to be a little nutty.
edit: beat me to it
