Recently read a post by Calvin Trillin in the New York Times, When ‘All Thumbs’ Becomes a Compliment,thanks to a mention in Ronni Bennett’s blog Time Goes By.He was referring to the common idiom about someone being ‘all thumbs’ or clumsy with hands and that it may no longer apply in current times as when he was “watching a teenager text” with their thumbs at lightening speed on the subway. This got me thinking about common expressions and idioms, that I still use all the time, and how they fit or not with modern times. Here goes:
“Hold your horses” meaning slow down,wait. ( used to refer to reigning in a horse or team of horses). I once said this to my daughter when she was little and she replied, ” I don’t have any horses!!”
“Spill the beans” (reveal a secret, sometimes prematurely).
“Mull it over” (ponder, think carefully about).
These next two may require prior knowledge of poultry farming:
” Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” ( don’t put all you resources into one thing) I usually use this to mean don’t put all your hopes on one venture, try, or possibility.
“Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched” ( Don’t assume something that has not happened yet)
“Don’t sell yourself short” ( Don’t underestimate yourself. Probably used to refer to the selling stock for less than what it would be worth in the long run.)
“Go the extra mile” ( Going above and beyond to make an effort to do something. May go out of style if we all go to metric system)
Photo by Davyd Betchkal NPS Denali National Park
“Won’t give an inch” ( stubborn, unwilling to compromise) This is similar to “Stick To Your Guns”
Shooting Jane Russell GIF via giphy.com
” Not playing with a full deck” ( Cognitively impaired, not functioning well. Like playing cards without a full deck of cards)
“Lose Your Marbles” ( mentally impaired, lose your wits)
“Sharp as a tack” (very intelligent, bright. Used to refer to sharp cutting edge. A tack is a small sharp pointed nail.
” Hit the nail on the head” (precisely, correct) Like hitting a nail head with a hammer.
via giphy.com
“In a nutshell” ( concisely, in summary) “alludes to the Roman writer Pliny’s description of Homer’s Iliad being copied in so tiny a hand that it could fit in a nutshell,” Idioms by The Free Dictionary.
“Close, but no cigar” ( almost the right answer or close to winning, but not quite) may be referring to old time carnival game stalls where the prize was a cigar.
Groucho Marx ‘A Day at the Races’
Do you have any favorites? Do they still work today?
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted by Linda G Hill. Today’s prompt is to look to the publication (book, newspaper, permission slip from your kid’s teacher, whatever you find) closest to you, and base your post on the sixth, seventh, and eighth word from the beginning of the page.
Featured image of ‘Young people texting’ by Tomwsulcer via wikimedia.org, homer simpson moe GIF via giphy.com, ‘Ponder’ image via Hobvias Sudonelghm on Flickr.com, Chicks and Nut images via Pixabay.com
Notes Tied On The Sagebrush 
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
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Ha,ha. Yes, that is a good one. The opposite of sharp as a tack.
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Yes it is.
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These are good. I use several of these often.
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They’re funny and interesting these idioms. But they will probably go out of use in the not too distant future.
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I don’t know, we still use “best thing since sliced bread” and we still refer to “dialing” a phone – they can last a long time.
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I get a kick out of it when I hear my daughter using some of my idioms. So maybe you are right. 🙂
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I am an idiom queen. Close but no cigar is a personal fave. I also like to kill two birds with one stone. And to explain my quirkiness I often say there is a method to my madness. And every single time I try to write a joke on my blog I include the classic – I know, I know I won’t quit my day job 🙂
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Ha,ha. I forgot about ‘method to my madness’, I have been known to use that one too. I don’t think I am quitting my day job either even though I am pretty much retired. 😀 Thanks, J-Dub.
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Let sleeping dogs lie … this has waaay too much actual relevance in my life at the moment, particularly when the kid decides to tease the dog because he’s bored. 😛
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That’s a good one too. Reminds me of ‘Don’t rock the boat’ I can see what you’re saying. 😀
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My mother constantly used expressions when I was growing up and still does. It’s why I named my blog Expressions. I either insert an expression in the post if I can or the post expresses some sort of feeling.
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That is so great that you were inspired by your mother’s expressions. 🙂
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Well, I’ve heard people talk about someone being slicker than a greased pig and a pig in a poke as well. Some of the sayings we use now have been around for centuries… They take on a “life of their own”,
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Pig in a poke, like acquiring something and not realizing it is not worth anything or much less than what you hoped. It is interesting to research where these sayings originated too and the meaning of some of the words. I just googled ‘pig in a poke’ to check on the word poke and it means sack. I also found an interesting post that says the saying has been around since the 1500s. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pig2.htm
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