Meanings of expressions or sayings

[Treacle]

'opening a can of worms'

To open a can of worms means to do something that will uncover more problems and make things more complicated and unsolvable than they already were; to create an unpleasant or troubling situation.

 

[RadishRose]

I once read that the word "threshold" was the raised part of the floor of a doorway that held back the Thresh.

Thresh, was the straw the peasants once put on dirt floors to keep the dust down.

 

[Ceege]

"What goes around, comes around." You get back what you put into something.

Others that mean the same thing are, "If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas". And, "You made your bed, now lie in it".

 

[Kaila]

"I'm on the fence"

These often seem obvious because they are so common, but I find metaphor phrases, very amusing!

"Between a rock and a hard place" .....
extremely descriptive!

 

[jujube]

"Caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea" - meaning caught between two bad outcomes.

Origin: old sailing ships had to have the barnacles scraped off regularly. At sea, they'd heel the boat over and lower a sailor on a sling. When the barnacle-encrusted area (known as the "devil" would become reachable, he'd scrape like mad until the ship straightened up. Hopefully, they'd pull him up fast enough before the force of the water slammed him into "the devil", thus catching him "between the devil and the deep blue sea" and getting either drowned, slammed hard into the side or having his skin ripped off by the barnacles.

 

[Aneeda72]

“A pig in a poke” selling or buying something without knowing its true value or condition.

Hmm, like our new very old house

 

[Kaila]

"I don't want to open up....a Pandora's box!"

I will need to google Pandora, and find out what an awful mess she must have gotten herself into, simply by taking some small action.

 

[Aneeda72]

"I don't want to open up....a Pandora's box!"

I will need to google Pandora, and find out what an awful mess she must have gotten herself into, simply by taking some small action.

Greek, as I remember when you open the box, in a movie, mean spirits came out and tried to kill the world, hmm, someone must have opened such a box recently

 

[Aunt Bea]

“A stitch in time saves nine”

It's better to act or deal with problems immediately because if you wait and deal with them later, things will get worse and the problems will take longer to deal with.

French proverb dating back to the early 1700s. It was a sailing term that had a specific meaning. When burying someone at sea, nine pounds of shot was used to weigh the body sack. Then, when the sack was stitched closed, the last stitch was passed through a body part.

 

[jerry old]

Braver than a bigamist.
(Supposed to depict bravery, anyone that wants more than one spouse may be brave,
but there also nuts.)

 

[Ceege]

"I don't want to open up....a Pandora's box!"

I will need to google Pandora, and find out what an awful mess she must have gotten herself into, simply by taking some small action.

Pandora's box is a similar story to the apple and the Garden of Eden. It's about how evil was introduced to the world.
http://myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/origins562-pandoras-box.html

 

[Aunt Bea]

"rule of thumb"

A broadly accurate guide or principle, based on experience or practice rather than theory.

In the 18th century a judge named Francis Buller, dubbed "Judge Thumb" by the famous caricaturist James Gillray, was said to have allowed that a man could beat his wife, as long as the punitive stick was no thicker than his thumb. (A witty countess was said to have asked the judge to measure her husband's thumb exactly so that she might know the precise extent of his privilege.)

The phrase rule of thumb first became associated with domestic abuse in the 1970s, after which the spurious legal definition was cited as factual in a number of law journals, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights published a report on domestic abuse titled "Under the Rule of Thumb" in 1982.

 

[Butterfly]

"What goes around, comes around." You get back what you put into something.

Others that mean the same thing are, "If you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas". And, "You made your bed, now lie in it".

My Henry has slept in my bed since the day I adopted him. Good thing he doesn't have fleas.

 

[Kaila]

What goes up, must come down.

 

[JaniceM]

I laughed when I read a different version of a somewhat popular old expression in B. Springsteen's autobiography.

Many people may be familiar with the expression "One-horse town" to describe a boring, nondescript place with little going for it.. but I absolutely love Springsteen's version- a "One-dog burg"- as it really fits my current location!

 

[Gaer]

As a kid, whenever Iwould get a spanking, My Dad would always say, "This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you."
NO, It didn't!

 

[win231]

I don't know if it's fact or fiction, but the origin of the word "S--t" is interesting:
In the 16th and 17th centuries, dry manure that was transported aboard ships sometimes got wet, fermented, and released methane gas, which is explosive. Many ships were destroyed before the source of the gas was recognized and after that, manure was marked “S.H.I.T,” which meant “Ship High In Transit. In other words, away from the bottom of the ship and the potential of coming into contact with water.