Years ago someone used the, I presume Aussie, phrase “black catter” to describe someone. I had never heard it, even though he assumed it was in common use, but because the explanation was so perfect I started using it. I don’t think I have ever used it when anyone has known what it means.
The meaning: he’s the kind of guy that if you have a big house his house is bigger; if you have a fast car his car is faster; if you have a black cat…
That’s funny - my cats wear their fur pajamas all the time. It’s handy, since all they do is sleep.
I would probably say all of these sayings, twisting them on purpose. But that’s just how I roll, nomesane?
I’ve heard every phrase in this thread (except black-catter), and used most of them. But I just found out what “teabagging” was a few months back. Does that really happen often enough that they need a word for it? I wasn’t even aware of the concept, much less the word.
I once answered a coworker’s question with, “That’s how it was done in days of yore.”
She replied with, “In days of my what?”
So I said, “No, I mean back in the day.”
“Oh, why didn’t you just say that?”
<shudder>
I just told my daughter she’d complain if she was hung with a new rope the other day–this was one of my dad’s favorites when I was but a wee lass. And I totally remember being 86’d from a bar so I remember that one as well. The only one in this thread I hadn’t heard before is black-catter.
I’m sure I’ve posted this before. A co-worker was complaining that her teenaged son thought the world revolved around him.
I asked, “And how are you going to disabuse him of that notion?”
Word went round the office that I was advocating child abuse.
I think the bees knees has been taken over by the more feasible dogs bollocks.
The other day “I havn’t got a bean” was met with a quizzical look.
You should have just rolled with it, made a routine out of it. Hey, it worked before -
Who’s on first base?
Right, Who’s on first.
That’s what I’m askin’ ya!
My dad looked at me askance when I referred to running a tight ship. He had not heard that use of the word tight and thought I was referring to being drunk, a use of tight which I had not encountered previously. A tight ship, sounds good to me! Booze for everyone!
Yeah, it seems that way. I like ducks, I don’t think they’re mean. Geese on the other hand…
I know this is egotistical, but: If I haven’t ever heard of your phrase, it is not in any common usage in American English.
I used to break apart the Summer Reading Goals for kids. I have read more books than I can count. I have watched probably 300 hours of British TV. I am considered a local Answer Man.
I have never heard of your phrase.
‘Flat battery’, which just cropped up in another thread. I assume it’s a British-English vs. American-English idiom. Incidentally how is it expressed in the USoA?
Dead battery, since it is dead and not live or shorter than it was, or less bumpy. . .
“I don’t have a dog in this fight”.
I thought it was a phrase everyone knew, until I used it at a party (in the City) and no one knew what I meant. Once I explained it, they were all delighted by my quaint country turn-of-phrase.
I still think I must have been in a room full of halfwits. Everyone’s heard “I don’t have a dog in this fight”, right? It’s not even an Aussie expression! It’s travelled internationally to get here, I hardly think it bypassed the metro areas and only caught on in these rural parts.
I’d never heard ‘I don’t have a dog in this fight’ until I came to the SDMB. No one I know in real life uses it. Except me.
There are a few expressions I’ve read here than I wasn’t able to quite figure out. If only I could remember what they were, this’d be the ideal thread to have my ignorance fought.
I have used two expressions the last couple of weeks that have been met with puzzlement: “Stickybeak” and “Long in the tooth”
Are these really such obscure phrases?
Re: 'being bitten/pecked/nibbled to death by ducks." I’ve heard this phrase for years. I don’t know how common it is, but people use it.
I’m in the US, and I’ve heard this phrase for years and years.
I wouldn’t say “long in the tooth” is obscure. I’ve heard it and read it in books.
I always thought “The bee’s knees” was how a hep cat might pronounce “the business,” e.g. “That song’s the business!” would become “That crazy tune is the bee’s knees!”
My neighbor bought a little plaque that says “being a mom is like being pecked to death by ducks”. Christmas tree shops- doesn’t much more middle America than that! 