‘to rain pitchforks (with their points downwards)’: meaning and origin
to rain very heavily—UK, 1820—sometimes appended to the phrase ‘to rain cats and dogs’
Read More“ad fontes!”
to rain very heavily—UK, 1820—sometimes appended to the phrase ‘to rain cats and dogs’
Read Morethe phrases built on the pattern ‘to out-X X’, in which ‘X’ is a person’s name, mean to be superior to X in his or her characteristics—the prefix ‘out-’ has been used to form verbs conveying the sense of surpassing, exceeding or beating in the action described by the simple verb
Read Moreused to rebuke an unrealistic conditional—USA, 1808: ‘if my aunt had been my uncle, what would have been her gender?’—France, 1843: ‘si ma tante était un homme, ça serait mon oncle’ (‘if my aunt were a man, that would be my uncle’)
Read More