• HOME
  • INTRODUCTION
  • FUN FACTS FRIDAYS
  • TV THURSDAYS
  • GOOD BOOKS
  • C O N T A C T

Sunset Years

Making the later years the best ever!

FUN FACTS FRIDAYS: IDIOMS

July 7, 2017

Occasionally on Fridays I will post facts for our interest or amusement. To begin the series, I examine the little known origins of a dozen idioms still used in everyday conversation to explain different situations in a few words.

  1. Make the grade: reach the required standard, measure up. The word grade is short for “gradient”, and this idiom derives from 19th century railroad construction when calculations were carefully made to ensure engines didn’t encounter sudden steep gradients.
  2. Turn a blind eye: pretend not to notice something. This expression results from Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) who, during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, is alleged to have deliberately raised his telescope to his blind eye, thus ensuring he would not see any signal from his superior giving him discretion to withdraw from the battle.
  3. Larger than life: a flamboyant, gregarious person. The New Yorker used the phrase to describe wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965).
  4. Get a leg up: gain an advantage. An equestrian’s helper creates a foothold by cupping the hands to heft the rider upward, throwing a leg up and over the steed.
  5. In the red: losing money, in a deficit. In medieval times the Church maintained meticulous accounting records. But ink was rare and expensive. When monasteries and far-flung churches could not afford ink, they bled domesticated animals to provide a substitute in the dipping wells. As a result, these financial records were written “in the red.”
  6. Face the music: accept the unpleasant consequences of our actions. The phrase originated from the tradition of disgraced officers being ‘drummed out’ of their regiment.
  7. Bite off more than we can chew: undertake more than we can manage. In the 19th century, people chewed tobacco but, when offered a bite of someone’s tobacco block, greedily took a larger bite than they could chew.
  8. Mind your Ps and Qs: behave properly. Comes from early pub days when beer and ale were served in pint and quart containers and the tab for consumption kept on a chalkboard. Watching your Ps and Qs meant controlling your alcohol intake.
  9. Toe the line: follow the group, don’t disagree. This term comes from military line-ups for inspection. Soldiers are expected to line up, that is put their toes on a line, and submit to an inspection.
  10. In the doldrums: feel depressed, unmotivated. Doldrums is the name of a place in the ocean located near the equator that’s characterized by unstable trade winds. A sailing ship caught in the Doldrums can be stranded due to lack of wind.
  11. Throw in the towel: admit defeat. The phrase comes from boxing in which a fighter indicates surrender by throwing a towel into the ring
  12. Don’t burn your bridges: don’t say or do anything you’ll later regret when leaving a job, moving or changing a situation. The phrase applies to military strategy: burning a bridge troops crossed to keep the enemy from using it may backfire if they realize later on they need the bridge to escape.

Feel free to share your favourite idioms! Or send me fun facts for future Friday posts! •

fun facts
Fun fact: in 1792 Captain George Vancouver named the Burrard Inlet (Burrard Bridge in photo) after Harry Burrard, an acting lieutenant with Vancouver in the West Indies, who didn’t come within 5,000 km of this area.

Share this:

  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn

Related

11 Comments
Filed Under: FUN FACTS FRIDAYS

Comments

  1. Linda Richardson says

    July 7, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    What a great idea Pam! More fodder for happy hour conversations. I particularly liked the origins for “Turn a blind eye” and “in the red”. Who knew!

    Reply
    • Pam McPhail says

      July 7, 2017 at 4:32 pm

      Thanks, Linda. I’m sure you and your husband will discuss some fun facts to send for future posts.

      Reply
  2. Grant says

    July 7, 2017 at 6:43 pm

    Fun!

    Reply
    • Pam McPhail says

      July 7, 2017 at 8:18 pm

      Fun-ny!

      Reply
  3. Casey Reid says

    July 8, 2017 at 12:12 am

    This is great! It’s always interesting to learn the etymology of various words and idioms. I like “hair of the dog that bit you-” referring to the method of treatment of a rabid dog bite by placing hair from the dog in the wound.

    Reply
    • Pam McPhail says

      July 8, 2017 at 8:46 am

      Good one, Casey. I didn’t know it.

      Reply
  4. Brandon W says

    July 8, 2017 at 9:38 am

    Well. That was…fun!

    Reply
  5. Lorna Smith says

    July 9, 2017 at 12:26 pm

    Remind me to tell you about the line ” quit while you are ahead”

    Reply
    • Pam McPhail says

      July 11, 2017 at 9:28 am

      Will do, Lorna. Or you could share with the readers…

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Welcome to Pam McPhail's blog about the sunset years, a metaphor for the stage in life when we're no longer fully occupied in the workplace or at home. We’re free to set our own agendas. Together let's explore how to make these years our best ever.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn

Recent Posts

  • WHAT’S A STORY WORTH?
  • D-DAY FACTS
  • TV THURSDAYS: RIPLEY
  • WORLD BOOK DAY 2024
  • THE RIGHT TIME
  • DECIDING ON DECISIONS
  • TAKE IT TO HEART

Recent Comments

  • Daily Riddles on FUN FACTS FRIDAYS: RIDDLES, THE SEQUEL
  • Linda McAmmond on LOSING A SIBLING
  • Pam McPhail on WHAT’S A STORY WORTH?
  • Pam McPhail on WHAT’S A STORY WORTH?

Archives

Categories

Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Hawaii Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}