# Phrases you're surprised people aren't familiar with **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 20, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974 "2011-09-20T18:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/81 "2011-09-21T18:06:59Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > No, that’s traditional. Certainly not common in North America, though. Common where then? ---
**Author:** ![KittenKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kittenkat/32/306_2.png) [@KittenKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KittenKat)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/82 "2011-09-21T18:09:09Z")
> [@Laggard](#): > > No, cheaters are reading glasses. > > [Corrective lens - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_glasses#Reading_glasses) I don’t know, taking into account the following lyrics from the song _Jeepers Creepers_, I think there is a case for cheaters being sunglasses, at least in some circles: Jeepers, creepers…where’d ya get them peepers Jeepers, creepers…where’d ya get those eyes Gosh oh, git up…how’d they get so lit up Gosh oh, gee oh…how’d they get that size Golly gee…when you turn them heaters on Woe is me…got to put my cheaters on Personally, I think I’ve heard cheaters used to mean any type of glasses. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/83 "2011-09-21T18:25:24Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I think I picked that one up from the 60’s Batman show. Odd that The Penguin would be a good influence on my vocabulary. I knew it long before then. I’ve always read a lot, but don’t know exactly where I picked it up. Since I’d always known the term, I assumed everybody did. My wife hearing it (from me) for the first time was just a few months ago. . ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/84 "2011-09-21T18:30:02Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > It’s funny that in this thread, it’s obvious that many of the posters don’t know what “No room to swing a cat” means. > > It refers to a [cat o nine tails](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_o'_nine_tails) (Raises hand) I did, and I’m pretty sure I learned it from one of those books by Unca Cece. . Edit: re Post #38- Oh. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/85 "2011-09-21T18:31:02Z")
> [@Lilacs](#): > > My best friend and I were watching American Pickers the other night. Mike said, “I’ll be on that like a duck on a June bug!” My friend burst out laughing. “Where does he come up with those sayings?” She asked. She’d never heard it before. “I’ll be on you like ants on a fish head” nearly killed me. ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/86 "2011-09-21T18:44:50Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > > [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > > > FWIW “room to swing a cat” gets about 710,000 hits on Google; “room to swing a dead cat” only gets 6990. > > Meanwhile “swing a cat” gets 266,000 hits and “swing a dead cat” gets 490,000. So more people need room when swinging live cats but in general, they prefer swinging deceased felines. Sorry for the hijack, but can someone explain the mysteries of Google to me? How can there be fewer hits on “swing a cat” than there are on “room to swing a cat”? Shouldn’t the results for “swing a cat” include the 710,000 hits for “room to swing a cat” PLUS any other instance of “swing a cat” that don’t include “room to”? ---
**Author:** ![My\_Freakin\_Back\_Is\_Killing\_Me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@My\_Freakin\_Back\_Is\_Killing\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Freakin_Back_Is_Killing_Me)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/87 "2011-09-21T18:47:10Z")
I remember my mother always used to tell me, " You have more excuses than Carter has little liver pills." I thought I understood it until one day we were having a conversation about former president Jimmy Carter and I asked, “Didn’t he have problems with his liver?” Umm, I don’t think I ever saw my mother laugh that hard. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/88 "2011-09-21T19:02:37Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > Never ever heard this saying before. I don’t even know what a june bug is. My wife and I grew up with different uses of the term. I knew June Bugs as those large irridescent green beetles. She insists they refer to the little dun beetles that tend to gather at doorsteps to die. In a similar fashion, I have always understand duffel bag to mean a cylindrical canvas bag that cinches with a drawstring at the top. But she used it to refer to what I call an athletic bag – a smaller cylindrical bag with that zips open along the side and has fabric handles. Turns out, judging by Google, a lot of other people fallen into the same error she has. But as for phrases themselves, I truck in a lot of old expressions I dug out of some old book or other, and so I think people have just stopped asking, but I have the impression that people don’t give eachother _the business_ anymore. And when someone mentions that I got a haircut, they seem not to know what to do with “I got 'em all cut.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/89 "2011-09-21T19:04:40Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Common where then? Robin Hood country (Nottingham / Yorkshire / Lincolnshire). I don’t know about common, but less uncommon. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/90 "2011-09-21T19:23:10Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > “Screw the pooch.” I sort of knew what this meant, having recently heard it in _The Right Stuff_, but to be sure I looked it up on Wiktionary. According to that esteemed but fallible source, the phrase actually did originate with the Mercury space program and gained popular use when the aforementioned film was released. I had no idea it was that recent. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/91 "2011-09-21T19:29:25Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > “Dog in a manger” is one I’ve had to explain a number of times after using it. > [@the lone cashew](#): > > Well.. > ..would you mind explaining it just one more time? It’s from an old fable about a dog who slept in a feedbox, keeping the farm animals from eating. If you’re being “the dog in the manger”, you’re hoarding a valuable resource that someone else needs but you cannot use. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/92 "2011-09-21T19:50:10Z")
> [@Elret](#): > > I once told some coworkers (in an informal type setting) that an expected piece of mail that hadn’t arrived seemed to have gone “M.I.A.” and one actually got _mad_ at me because she had no idea what it meant. (Everyone else understood fine.) Means it got turned into a [paper plane](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sei-eEjy4g), right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/93 "2011-09-21T19:54:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_Angel](#): > > And when someone mentions that I got a haircut, they seem not to know what to do with “I got 'em all cut.” The first time I heard that I said “What the hell is a mall cut?” ---
**Author:** ![DHMO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@DHMO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DHMO)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/94 "2011-09-21T20:14:54Z")
When I was working with a bunch of Florida Crackers years ago, a co-worker and I were both taking classes at the local University. He asked my advice on some detail of his schoolwork, and after I had explained the hard part, I said, “The rest is self-explanatory.” Big mistake. ‘Em good ole boys done started hootin’ an’ hollerin’ “Self exp_lan_atory!?! Ther ya go, usin’ 'em big _college_ words!” For weeks after, they’d see me in the hall and shout, “There goes Mr. Self-Exp_lan_atory!” Ironic, since the word, itself, _is_ self-explanatory. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/95 "2011-09-21T20:18:09Z")
> [@My\_Freakin\_Back\_Is\_Killing\_Me](#): > > I remember my mother always used to tell me, " You have more excuses than Carter has little liver pills." I thought I understood it until one day we were having a conversation about former president Jimmy Carter and I asked, “Didn’t he have problems with his liver?” Umm, I don’t think I ever saw my mother laugh that hard. This exact scenario pretty much happened to me, although my mom always said “more [blank] than Carter’s got pills.” But yeah, she about cried laughing. Also, nobody seems to know what I mean when I say that something was far away by referring how I was “all over hell’s half acre.” I think this is related to to the phrase “to hell and back.” Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/96 "2011-09-21T20:51:35Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > My mother used to say “all around Robin Hood’s barn” to describe going someplace in a roundabout fashion, difficult to reach, etc. I have asked lots of people if they ever heard this and no one has. Did my mom make it up? Heard it and used it, but then, I spent a few years in the UK when I was a kid. I’m wondering if the “cheaters” thing might be age related? I and a friend’s husband know what it means. He’s four years \*older \*than I am. On the other hand, \*she’d \*never heard of it until I mentioned it. She’s four years \*younger \*than I am. ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/97 "2011-09-21T20:53:49Z")
… “And those that can’t teach, administrate. And those that can’t administrate, go into politics.” I’m sure I have some unrecognized phrases, but I can’t think of any I know that I don’t know the meaning of… ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/98 "2011-09-21T21:17:28Z")
Not really a phrase but more of a term, but I always see people say their interest has “peaked” or something “peaked” their curiosity. Its “piqued”, people. Not peaked. Your curiosity did not climb a mountain, rather it was stimulated or raised. Similar meanings, I guess, which is why people get it confused so much ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/99 "2011-09-21T21:35:14Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Not really a phrase but more of a term, but I always see people say their interest has “peaked” or something “peaked” their curiosity. > > Its “piqued”, people. Not peaked. Your curiosity did not climb a mountain, rather it was stimulated or raised. Similar meanings, I guess, which is why people get it confused so much If the words are pronounced the same, then people are probably confused\* for the same reason they are with toe the line and tow the line. \*Until just this moment I always thought it was peaked. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974/100 "2011-09-21T21:37:03Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > My mother used to say “all around Robin Hood’s barn” to describe going someplace in a roundabout fashion, difficult to reach, etc. I have asked lots of people if they ever heard this and no one has. Did my mom make it up? My mom has taken this up in the last few years–she never said it when I was a kid. It’s actually rather irritating to me. Not sure why. Perhaps because my mom can NEVER find things on her own, but uses that god-forsaken idiom to criticize others’ driving. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/phrases-youre-surprised-people-arent-familiar-with/596974.md?page=6)