Phrases you've never understood.

[FamoFunk]

"Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about".

Umm, it' probably you that set the person off crying about something already.

 

[captaincabbage]

"I think this whole thing's been a bit of a damp squid."

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

"Would you like some cheese with that whine?"
I've never gotten that. What does cheese have to do with wine, which I believe is the intended pun.

Ahh, never heard of a cheese and wine party?

It's two things that have always gone together

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

"I think this whole thing's been a bit of a damp squid."

Ahh, this ones hard to tell from just reading it.

but it might have something to do with a corruption of, I think this whole things been a bit of damp squib.


Squib being an explosive in with industrial uses, being wet it's therefor useless.

 

[Treefingers]

Violin music is usually sad.

No it isn't.

Fine, stereotypically sad.
I'll let a talking crab demonstrate:

Much better.

 

[kinapuffar]

One that really bugs me that people use a lot is "It's not even ______"

'It's not even funny' is a common one and it makes no sense. Say someone tells a joke, the joke can either be funny(good), or not funny(bad), so saying that the joke is not even funny is the same thing as saying that it's so bad that it isn't even good.

"He's so sick that he isn't even healthy" or "He's so fat that he isn't even skinny" Well, duh.

You can use it for other things than jokes. "The prank you pulled on Rajesh was not only incredibly cruel, it wasn't even funny. You're an asshole, kill yourself."
And various situations like that.
"Fart pillow? Really, Jamal? It's not even funny." Reading between the lines the implication being that first and foremost fart jokes are immature, and secondly, they're not even funny, which if they were, might excuse the immaturity.

Your first point, sure, that makes sense. Except people don't really use it that way.

But the point still remains that using 'not even' implies that whatever it is can't even reach some low standard. You could say "It's not even a 3 out of 10" and that would make sense: it's so bad that it doesn't get a decent score. Instead though, people say it like "It's so bad that it's not even a 10 out of 10"

'Not even' means that it's falling short of the mark, and if the mark is being the best it can be then you have a grammatical redundancy. You could say "He is poor", instead of "He isn't even a millionaire"

It all depends on expectations and situation.
If you're at a banquet with the world's richest people, then "He isn't even a millionaire" is appropriate when comparing him to all the billionaires around.
I think it's generally used to denote a lack of redeeming qualities.

When talking about a potential lover, you can say that he/she sure is ugly, but at least they're kind and compassionate, which make up for it.
But when he/she isn't even that nice. Then the combination of ugly/asshole makes them completely unlikable.

 

[Sir Seagull]

Tit for tat. I know what a tit is, but wtf is a tat?

http://www.notquitewrong.com/rosscottinc/2010/05/07/the-system-368-if-this-doesnt-make-you-groan-i-dont-know-what-will/

I believe this comic has you covered my friend

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

how do you not understand "could care less"

I think we all understand it, its just that it make the speaker sound like an idiot when they say it wrong like that.

I '"could" care less means you do care about it, i "couldn't" care less means that you are unable to care any less about whatever it is even if you tried.

So to explain it in another way: Why the hell are you saying you do care when what you mean is that you don't give a damn?
Its not even being sarcastic when you say 'could', so it really just makes you look stupid...

 

[skeliton112]

Not a phrase, but a word that never made sense to me is "oxymoron". The only thing my wife and I can come up with is that there are probably no morons studying at Oxford, therefore, if there were an Oxford moron, it would describe a contradictory thing. Anyone know how close we are to the truth?

Sorry if someone has already answered, I couldn't find any replies.

I pretty much translates to sharp blunt in greek. Sharp blunt is an oxymoron.

 

[sniddy_v1legacy]

"stop, or I'll file a restraining order against you"

I find if I misunderstand that one, well the police are very clear AFTERwards

 

[dodged]

I've never quite gotten the quote 'here's looking at you, kid' .. i dont know if thats just my IQ acting up again, but i dont get it

 

[David Bray]

INB4 "I could care less"

Umad?

Edit: Head over Heels, My head is generally over my heels, regardless of mood.

Isn't that a bad english contraction of "I couldn't care less"?

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

snip

snip

snippitty snip snip

snip yet again

Jake Lewis Clayton is on fire ladies and gentlemen.

OT: Buying the farm. If that's a euphemism for dying, then why would I be buying property?

I love the phrase "screwed the pooch", though. Gets me every time.

Thanks

buying the farm is thought by some to be kind of an evolution of "bourght the plot(funeral plot), ______ (how they died)". It's a term from the mid 21st century onwards (definitely not the best place to find an origional source) but it was a military term (bourght the plot) but that would have the same meaning of just dieing, even when just shorterned to bourght the plot.


Theres 3 other explanations to an indapendant birth of bourght the farm aswell, all military terms aswell.


1. A pilot crashes into a farm, the farmer can sue the goverment for compensation, in effect buying the farm with his life.

2. People tend to dream of going back to a country farm or their old life during war, and dieing could be reaching the goal, the farm early (heaven).

^-- the saddest explanation to be honest.

3. If a serviceman is died in action, their families can claim insurance payments pertaining to the mans life, therefore buying the farm with the procedes (in effect paying off a mortgage).






Hope that helps, i'm not posting that much for another one again

 

[Plinglebob]

"My dog's are barking" when people refer to their feet hurting. I don't know where it came from, but it's really stupid.

I love Cockney Rhyming slang. Origin comes from the slang "Dogs Meat" meaning feet. Not to be confused with "Dog and Bone"

turn over a new leaf. lolwut?

if you read leaf as in leaf of paper, I think it makes more sense, although I don't know if that's what it's supposed to mean.

When you turn over a new leaf of paper, you are starting on a blank page. Therefore when you "Turn over a new leaf" you are starting again ignoring what was before.

"Dead as a doornail".

Mind, I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade.

I, and Dickens, agree with you.

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

"Live each day like its your last."

Wtf? That would be a horrible way to live. Constantly knowing that you're just about to die. Fuck that.

Oh come on, you know it means live care free and get the most out of your days.

 

[KaizokuouHasu]

Spoiler: Captain Obvious being Captain Obvious

Head over Heels, My head is generally over my heels, regardless of mood.

Yes, but if you are "*falling* head over heels", then you're falling head-first. Your love of someone is so overwhelming it's caused you to pass out and fall over.

"Sleep like a log" or "sawing logs" (as reference to snoring)

Logs are flat, silent and motionless on the ground, like yourself if you are sleeping soundly (without tossing/turning and making noise).

As cool as a cucumber.

Cucumbers are mostly water - that's makes them refreshing and cooling, though "cool" is in the other sense of the word.

OT: Its all good.

You're not meaning *everything in the entire world* is good, you're talking about everything pertaining to the current situation is "good/fine".

"Can't see a forest for the trees".

So, it's impossible to look at a forest on behalf of the trees?

"For" in the case means "because of", not "on behalf of". Other people have already explained the rest to you, though.

4) "It's always darkest before dawn".

This is talking about a *specific time* before dawn, otherwise known as "night", not "just before". LOTS of things happened before today's dawn: invention of the lightbulb, construction of the Empire State building, Crystal Pepsi - you just gotta use common sense to figure *when* this idiom is meaning.

Here's one; "It's on the tip of my tongue." - what? No it's not. It's in your head and you're trying to get it out into words!

Look up the word "metaphor". Don't take it so literally.

-snip-

-snip-

You know, "When time runs out" makes more sense. But "Shit hits the fan"? Why? ._ .

But it's got nothing to do with time running out - it's got everything to do with a bad event that causes lots of other bad events/messes everything up.

"snip"
i really am really confused by this one.

You use it to show that there was a quote there, but you deleted it anyway because it was too long/not important to your reply. If you just leave it blank, the quote box wont show.

"A picture is worth 1000 words". That's fine, but how much is a word worth? My theory is they are worth nothing as the market appears to be supersaturated with them.

It means that you can convey with a picture what it could take 1000 words to convey (1000 being an arbitrary number, seeing as you like to think everything it literal as possible ) - "A picture is worth 1000 words" worth of explanation.

"Would you like some cheese with that whine?"
I've never gotten that. What does cheese have to do with wine, which I believe is the intended pun.

Cheese and wine go well together flavour-wise, apparently (I wouldn't know). Cheese and Wine Pairing Guide [http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Wine-and-Alcohol-644/wine-cheese-pairing-guide.aspx]

OT: "Taking the biscuit/cake/Mick/Micky/Michael" - I get what it means, I just don't know where it comes from.
"Took/ripped the piss out of X" - some reference to a Mortal Kombat fatality?

Man you suck. Your Link avatar makes up for it though, I suppose. I was having such fun exploring silly idioms, too. ¬_¬

Speaking of which:
"You suck." or "You blow." - why do they mean that someone is bad at something?

OR:
"Like stealing sweets from a child." - I don't know how many of you have tried, but it's hard. T_T

 

[Jake Lewis Clayton]

Man you suck. Your Link avatar makes up for it though, I suppose. I was having such fun exploring silly idioms, too. ¬_¬

Speaking of which:
"You suck." or "You blow." - why do they mean that someone is bad at something?

OR:
"Like stealing sweets from a child." - I don't know how many of you have tried, but it's hard. T_T

The term is stealing candy from a baby, (babys generally are too strong to hold onto anything if you give it a good yank).

You suck has a few potential origions, from sucking hen eggs by a dog on a farm, which would be seen as incompetance on the dogs part and would have to be shot.

others are an insult of someone sucking d*** but that comes into use about 22 years later.

 

[Purple Shrimp]

how do you not understand "could care less"

I think we all understand it, its just that it make the speaker sound like an idiot when they say it wrong like that.

I '"could" care less means you do care about it, i "couldn't" care less means that you are unable to care any less about whatever it is even if you tried.

So to explain it in another way: Why the hell are you saying you do care when what you mean is that you don't give a damn?
Its not even being sarcastic when you say 'could', so it really just makes you look stupid...

May I inquire why you have no problem with so many other phrases being non-literal (ie "It's raining cats and dogs"), but you draw the line here?