‘very like a whale’: meaning and origin
is used of something that is very improbable—USA, 1768—alludes to Hamlet (Act 3, scene 2), by Shakespeare
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‘one might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb’: meaning and origin
if the punishment for a minor wrongdoing is to be the same as for a major one, there is no reason for not committing the greater offence—1678 in a collection of proverbs
Read More‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’: meaning and origin
USA, 1962—if something is successful, effective or not obviously defective, there is no need to change or replace it
Read More‘Froggy-land’: meaning and origin
UK, 19th century—a humorous appellation for France—from the noun ‘Froggy’, designating a French person—but ‘froggy land’, with lower-case initials, was originally used of any wetland
Read More‘to have a canary’: meaning and origin
chiefly Irish—to lose one’s composure, to be extremely upset—UK, 1970—probably a humorous play on ‘to have a coronary’ (i.e., to have a heart attack)
Read More‘the cream of the crop’: meaning and origin
the best produce from a harvest—hence: the best of a group of people or things—UK, 1828—from ‘cream’ (i.e., the most excellent element or part)
Read More‘to throw out a tub to the whale’: meaning and origin
to create a diversion, in order to avoid a dangerous or unpleasant situation—UK, 1730—alludes to the Preface to A Tale of a Tub (1704), by Jonathan Swift
Read More‘to put lipstick on a pig’: meaning and origin
USA, 1959—to (seek to) make minor or superficial improvements to something considered fundamentally unappealing or inadequate
Read More‘(as) extinct as the diplodocus’: meaning and origin
of a person or thing: irretrievably defunct or out of date—UK, 1905—perhaps originally in allusion to ‘Diplodocus Carnegii’, named after Andrew Carnegie, who, that year, presented the skeleton of that diplodocus to the Natural History Museum of London
Read More‘birds in their little nests agree’: meaning and origin
children, especially siblings, should not argue among themselves—UK, 1818—alludes to Love between Brothers and Sisters, in Divine Songs Attempted in Easy Language for the Use of Children (1715), by Isaac Watts
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