Well?
Huh? The second one is just wrong, and doesn’t even make sense.
(That reminds me of the scene from “Die Hard With a Vengeance” when Bruce Willis knows one of the German bad guys is pretending to be an American when he says “it’s raining like dogs & cats.”)
“In like a lamb, out like a lion”? Who the hell says that unless they are being ironic? Is it a southern hemisphere thing?
We use both. It means that if the month starts off with mild weather it will end with harsh weather. If the month starts off with harsh weather it will end with mild weather. Supposedly.
Right answer.
The correct idiom is “in like a lion and out like a lamb”. It refers to the beginning of the month consisting of harsh winter weather and the end of the month consisting of spring like weather.
Clearly the first one. Don’t you guys knowhow to settle this?
I’ve always heard the expression as “In like a lion, out like a lamb”. In practice, though, around here the end of March usually seems to be more wintry than the beginning of it.
In addition to the weather reasons, though, “in like a lamb, out like a lion” also doesn’t make astrological sense. In the traditional (and no longer accurate) astrological calendar, March begins under the sign of Leo, and ends under the sign of Ares.
What the hell Ephemeris are you using? Leo is the fourth sign after Ares. In order for March to start with Leo and end in Ares, either March would have to be 8 months long, or Leo and Pisces would have had to switch places in the sky.
Sheesh.
What that proves is
But did you know that March behaves differently in other countries? In Norway, for example, March comes in like a polar bear and goes out like a walrus. Or, take the case of Honduras where March comes in like a lamb and goes out like a salt marsh harvest mouse.
In Soviet weather, March lambs you!
To which I offer this stunning rebuttal:
Oops.
Yes. This is the whole point of the expression, as I learned it.
Unlike the Malay Peninsula where March comes in like a worm-eating fernbird and goes out like a worm-eating fernbird. In fact, their whole year is like a worm-eating fernbird.
I had no idea what the hell you were talking about. I thought we were talking about march as in the verb - so, you know, march in like a lamb and out like a lion might be an alternative form of Teddy Roosevelt’s speak softly and carry a big stick.
This is the only way I’ve heard it, too. Perhaps it’s a regional thing. I don’t think March in Chicago ever comes in like a lamb.
This is the way I learned it too. It means March always ends with weather that is the opposite of the weather it started with. We’ve had mild weather here the last few days, so according to the saying we should have storms at the end of the month.
Yeah, isn’t the beginning of March the tail end of winter for most of us? I’ve never experienced a March that began like anything resembling a lamb.
There are nine different countries where March comes in like a frog and goes out like a golden retriever.
The lamb/lion stuff doesn’t refer to temperature, though (the way I learned it). It refers to wind. If March starts windy it will end not-windy or vice-versa.