# Phrases you'd think people would know **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178 "2009-09-15T15:19:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/121 "2009-12-10T16:32:43Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > So, have “we” heard “That dog won’t hunt”? > > I’m really wondering, considering the usage of phrases a very well read person has never heard. I’m only saying this since you were so egotistical in your earlier post, but… maybe you aren’t as “well read” as you think. Or maybe it’s possible to be well read and not know every possible turn of phrase that’s been used? ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/122 "2009-12-10T16:54:42Z")
I had never heard the phrase “soup to nuts” until very recently. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/123 "2009-12-10T17:14:22Z")
Well, I’ve hardly lead a sheltered life but I have not a clue what “DP” stands for, not sure I want to be enlightened either. For me, I have often used the phrase “there’s a rabbit off!” and had blank looks. I suspect it is a very North Eastern UK thing, it doesn’t seem to play so well “darn sarf” ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/124 "2009-12-10T17:21:20Z")
14K of G in a pfd ? I thought everyone knew that one 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/125 "2009-12-10T17:43:40Z")
DP in a sexual sense means: double penetration ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/126 "2009-12-10T18:16:29Z")
> [@](#): > > DP in a sexual sense means Harroo. I shouldn’t have looked, as now I’m just very confused about what, where and how. Let’s forget it. I did get mine the other day, though (I think). I was wearing a cool comic book-related shirt and one of the kids at my college (I’m back and much older than they are) took a look and said, “That shirt is sick!” I said, “Is that good?” Turns out it was. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/127 "2009-12-10T18:24:21Z")
> [@Gorgon\_Heap](#): > > Harroo. I shouldn’t have looked, as now I’m just very confused about what, where and how. Simultaneous vaginal/anal penetration, as opposed to a spit-roast, which is vaginal/oral penetration. Too late to forget it! ---
**Author:** ![Livardo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/43a26b/32.png) [@Livardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Livardo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/128 "2009-12-10T18:26:56Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Simultaneous vaginal/anal penetration, as opposed to a spit-roast, which is vaginal/oral penetration. > > Too late to forget it! DVDA! ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/129 "2009-12-10T18:46:26Z")
> [@Baracus](#): > > What about “in a coons age”? For example, “I haven’t seen him in a coons age”. I hadn’t heard that one before my wife used it. When I used it in front of my brothers they both thought I had lived in the South for too long. The first time I heard this phrase was in **Reservoir Dogs**. The “Toby? Who the fuck is Toby?” address book was found in an old coat that hadn’t been worn in a coon’s age. The phrase stuck out at me because at the time it sounded vaguely dirty to me. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/130 "2009-12-10T18:49:37Z")
Apparently no one 'cept me knows why a dog licks his balls. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/131 "2009-12-10T20:31:12Z")
A coworker of mine once wrote that something or other wasn’t covered because it was considered “an active God.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/132 "2009-12-10T22:10:34Z")
The “bitten/pecked/nibbled to death by ducks” quote either originates, or was popularized on the net by Gene Spafford, one of the great movers and shakers in the development of the Internet. The other one I remember is about likening Usenet to a circus of diarrheatic elephants: “massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it.” ---
**Author:** ![FE3O4ENAIL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba9def/32.png) [@FE3O4ENAIL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FE3O4ENAIL)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/133 "2009-12-10T23:19:51Z")
Who has heard the following? Slicker that snot on a glass door knob. Like a cow pissing on a flat rock. Jumpy as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. Jumpy as a long tailed cat in a rocking chair store. Horney as a two peckered billy goat. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/134 "2009-12-13T01:07:02Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > “bit to death by ducks.” > > One of the reasons no one recognizes this is because it’s not quite right. > > The phrase is ‘pecked to death by ducks’, I believe. > > Now, merrily onward… No, it’s “nibbled”. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/135 "2009-12-13T05:17:00Z")
Yep, it’s ‘nibbled.’ ---
**Author:** ![brendon\_small](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brendon_small/32/17101_2.png) [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/136 "2009-12-13T15:47:18Z")
My wife says I run around “like a goose a with a bell clapper strapped to it’s tail feathers.” I assume it’s a secret compliment, but she said it means I talk too much. A friend commented at a Christmas party the other night that he used the phrase “how do you like them apples?” with someone and they had never heard that. They responded, “I like apples.” Of course, the response came from a child under 10, so I assume it isn’t as cool as all the other unheard phrases. Brendon Small ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/137 "2009-12-13T16:39:12Z")
“Jumpy as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest” I’ve heard as “busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest,” along the lines of “busy as a one-armed paper-hanger.” Some of these are pretty old, like “Everything from soup to nuts.” ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/138 "2009-12-13T16:41:54Z")
I like a quaint ol’ phrase as much as the next guy, but the “stars and garters” thing just comes off as way too… “gee golly” to me. I think these things will have gone by the wayside (heh) in the future, as it seems that the thing to do is just obscurely quote movies, even if the quote isn’t interesting or notable. I have to stop myself from saying “Is _that_ what they say…?” like Magneto in X-Men 2, because it’s only not weird if you know it’s a quote, and it’s a pretty mundane quote. It just got stuck in my head somehow. So now, when you say something like that and people don’t understand it, it’s not because they haven’t heard the expression before, it’s because they haven’t seen the movie. For the record, I think I first heard “gangway!” in a ninja turtles cartoon or something, and always thought it was “gain way!” as in, gain a right of way by making room for me… ---
**Author:** ![luv2draw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/46a35a/32.png) [@luv2draw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/luv2draw)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/139 "2009-12-13T18:40:58Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > I’ve heard all the phrases so far in this thread but yours. I’ve also heard the other ones so far but not yours. BUT I can figure out it’s not a good thing…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178/140 "2009-12-13T18:44:39Z")
“Loaded for bear” was a phrase that once got me a puzzled stare from a younger co-worker. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youd-think-people-would-know/510178.md?page=8)