‘give someone an inch and they’ll take a mile’: meaning and origin
the slightest concession will be unscrupulously exploited—USA, 1837, in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s diary—a later form of ‘give someone an inch and they’ll take an ell’
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‘to stick out a mile’: meaning and origin
New Zealand, 1883, as ‘to stick out half a mile’—to be very prominent or conspicuous
Read More‘one might hear a pin drop’ | ‘one can hear a pin drop’
‘one might hear a pin drop’ (UK, 1739): the silence and sense of expectation are intense—‘one can hear a pin drop’ (UK, 1737): one has a keen sense of hearing
Read More‘Deirdre spectacles’: meaning and origin
UK, 1981—a pair of spectacles with an oversized frame of a style that was fashionable in the 1980s—refers to the spectacles worn by Deirdre Barlow, a fictional character in the soap opera Coronation Street
Read More‘prophet of doom’: meanings and origin
UK, 1809—a person who predicts disaster, a doomsayer—also: a person who is (especially unduly) pessimistic about the future
Read More‘Baedeker raid’: meaning and origin
one of the German air raids in 1942 on places of cultural and historical importance in Britain—from ‘Baedeker’: any of a series of guidebooks to foreign countries, issued by the German publisher Karl Baedeker (1801-1859) and his successors
Read More‘common-or-garden’: meanings and origin
16th century: a plant of the most familiar or frequently occurring kind, especially one that is cultivated—hence, figuratively, 19th century: something ordinary or usual for its type
Read More‘to make a pig’s ear of something’: meaning and origin
UK—the noun ‘pig’s ear’ is colloquially used to designate a mess, a botched job—probably a euphemism for ‘pig’s arse’
Read More‘pig in the middle’: meanings and origin
UK—a ball game for three players, in which the middle player tries to intercept the ball as it passes between the other two—hence: a person, party, etc., caught between others in a conflict, dispute, etc.
Read More‘to hitch one’s wagon to a star’: meanings and origin
USA, 1862—coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson: to set oneself high aspirations—later also: to advance one’s ambitions by associating oneself with somebody more successful or powerful
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