‘a trout in the milk’: meaning and origin
highly convincing circumstantial evidence—USA, 1862—ascribed to Henry David Thoreau—refers to the practice of surreptitiously diluting milk with stream-water
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‘a blot on the landscape’: meaning and origin
UK, 1813, as ‘to blot the landscape’, meaning, of an ugly feature, to spoil the appearance of a place—also used figuratively of anything unsightly or unappealing that spoils an otherwise pleasant scene
Read More‘what has that got to do with the price of ——?’: meaning and origin
USA, 1832—a rhetorical question calling attention to a non-sequitur or irrelevant statement or suggestion made by another person—the noun following ‘the price of’ is irrelevant to the context in which it is used
Read More‘all the tea in China’: meaning and origin
Ireland, 1891—used in negative contexts to denote rejection, especially in ‘not for all the tea in China’, meaning ‘not in any circumstances’—refers to China as a major producer of tea, and to tea as a commodity of great value
Read More‘like a bandicoot on a burnt ridge’: meaning and origin
1894—in Australian English, the noun ‘bandicoot’, which designates an insectivorous marsupial native to Australia, has been used in numerous similes denoting deprivation or desolation
Read More‘to piss in someone’s pocket’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1953—to flatter someone or to (seek to) ingratiate oneself with someone, to curry favour with someone—cf. 19th-century British phrase ‘to piss down someone’s back’ (to flatter someone)
Read More‘the Hungry Mile’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1925—a section of Sussex Street, on the Sydney waterfront, along which, in the 1920s and 1930s, unemployed wharf-labourers trudged, waiting to be handpicked for the few available jobs
Read More‘a hatful of arseholes’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1957, as ‘a hatful of bronzas’—used in similes expressing notions such as ugliness and silliness
Read More‘silly as a wheel’: meaning and origin
Australia, 1931—extremely silly—the underlying notion is probably that anything is silly that does all the hard work
Read More‘to dot the i’s and cross the t’s’: meaning and origin
USA, 1820—with reference to cursive writing: to pay attention to every detail, especially when finishing off a task or undertaking; to be accurate and precise
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