# Sayings, idioms, and acronyms which seem to indicate the OPPOSITE of what is intended **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 5, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599 "2025-11-05T14:47:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/21 "2025-11-05T20:00:26Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Random means that in a group, at any time each object in the group has an equal chance of being selected. I don’t believe that’s correct. A uniform distribution is not required. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/22 "2025-11-05T22:09:11Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Also, if you’re talking behind someone’s back, you’re talking in front of them, since that’s behind their back. No, the entire body and everything in front of the body is in front of the back. ---
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/23 "2025-11-05T23:37:44Z")
Gangsterism isn’t good, but in the environment gangster rap was born in, you had to be as tough as a gangster just to live your life. The genre was developed by people who were in that reality by circumstance rather than choice. Once it became popular, people wanted to be gangsters. It’s been said that the old school guys were gangsters who wanted to be rappers. Now, rappers want to be gangsters. That’s my understanding, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2025, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/24 "2025-11-05T23:48:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Does “Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps” count? In what way? How do you think it means the opposite of what it says? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/25 "2025-11-06T01:08:34Z")
“Backflip” to mean a complete reversal - but an actual backflip leaves you facing the same way you started. Similarly with a 360 degree change (of or too anything) - what you mean is a 180. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/26 "2025-11-06T01:43:08Z")
“DEFCON 5” is commonly used to mean “maximum danger,” but that’s the _lowest_ readiness level - the highest is DEFCON 1. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/27 "2025-11-06T01:56:22Z")
“It would be cheap at half the price.” Well, yes, of course it would. “It’s always in the last place you look.” Well, naturally. Once you’ve found it, why would you go on looking for it in other places? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/28 "2025-11-06T02:08:42Z")
FTW used to mean Fuck The World, which is a negative cry of anger or despair. Then it changed to mean For The Win, which is a positive cry of support and hope. The change happened so quickly I was very confused for quite a long while. Now nobody says it at all. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/29 "2025-11-06T02:10:25Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Using ‘literally’ to mean ‘figuratively’-- “my head literally exploded when I heard the news”. Some say, eh, it’s just how language evolves, but I do have a problem with this usage. If literally _literally_ comes to mean figuratively, how do we express something that is actually literal? ‘Literally’ is never used _to mean_ ‘figuratively’.’ In the given phrase, the speaker is emphasizing that their head truly and actually did explode. They are NOT intending to say “please don’t believe me, I’m only exaggerating.” They’re telling you they’re _not_ exaggerating. This is a lie, of course, but when someone tells a lie, they don’t actually mean the truth. They mean the lie. The person means their head seriously, in fact, did explode. > [@UDS1](#): > > “It would be cheap at half the price.” Well, yes, of course it would. That’s not the idiom. It’s “[cheap at twice the price](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cheap+at+*+the+price&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=en-2012&smoothing=3).” Nobody says your version unless they’re trying to be funny or flubbing the line. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/30 "2025-11-06T02:10:44Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > “It would be cheap at half the price.” Well, yes, of course it would. This is yet another example where the original phrase made sense, but idiots didn’t understand it and got it wrong. The original was “…at twice the price”, but any mention of “twice the price” makes it sound expensive, so it got mangled. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/31 "2025-11-06T02:30:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > > [@UDS1](#): > > > > “It would be cheap at half the price.” Well, yes, of course it would. > > This is yet another example where the original phrase made sense, but idiots didn’t understand it and got it wrong. Subverting a common expression like that is such a standard type of gag that I have to believe some of the people saying “Cheap at half the price” were doing so deliberately, as a joke (as @Chessic_Sense said, trying to be funny). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/32 "2025-11-06T02:41:30Z")
Virtually has come to be used in the sense of completely instead of mostly. And then there are words that look like they should be opposites, but aren’t, like ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’, 'bone and ‘debone’, etc. And then there are contranyms (having two different meanings, depending on context). ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/33 "2025-11-06T03:19:52Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > 'bone and ‘debone’ Yes, I have a chef’s boning knife that I use to debone various cuts. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/34 "2025-11-06T05:09:57Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > That’s not the idiom. It’s “[cheap at twice the price](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=cheap+at+*+the+price&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=en-2012&smoothing=3).” Nobody says your version unless they’re trying to be funny or flubbing the line. I have to say that I’ve only ever noticed the “half the price” version. Clearly, I need to get out more. (FWIW, filter the Ngram for British English, and it shows that the “half the price” and “twice the price” variants are more or less equally prevalent, and that this has been the case since some time in the 1980s.) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/35 "2025-11-06T05:14:14Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > On another site I was taken a bit aback yesterday when I read that a political ad had been “dropped”–so I immediately wondered who canceled it and why-was it DFT-enabled censorship at work again? A cowardly news service bending over backwards to not embarrass or anger him or his cronies? As I scanned the text of the article, I couldn’t even find any mention of it being stopped much less why, as it just went on about the ad’s content. > > I then realized that “drop” has somehow come to mean “released” and its original meaning of “canceled” (the usual idiom I’ve heard it used in the past was for a TV series: “The Frasier reboot has been dropped from the schedule.”) has been obviated and nay turned on its head It still means cancelled when used in that way. “Dropped” and “been dropped” mean two different things IMO. Not sure when I first remember hearing “dropped” as in released, it’s been around a _long_ time, 20 years ago? “The new album drops Tuesday,” was a common phrase. “Been dropped” has a totally different meaning. ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/36 "2025-11-06T05:33:32Z")
At my old job we had an acronym, MVP, which stood for Minimal Viable Product which kind of meant “what’s the least we could possibly do and still sell?”. I always thought it was funny because the common meaning of MVP, Most Valuable Player, is the polar opposite – a player that went above and beyond the minimum. > [@Chefguy](#): > > And then there are contranyms (having two different meanings, depending on context). Does “let’s table it” count as a contranymn? In the US it means to defer it and in the UK it means to consider it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/37 "2025-11-06T06:10:45Z")
> [@solost](#): > > “I could care less” meaning I _couldn’t_ care less I’m not supporting this version of the idiom - which sounds wrong to me - but the justification I have heard is that it is meant as: “I _could_ care less [but not easily]…” That is, it is intended to convey that while it would theoretically be possible for me to care less than I do, it is not likely. > [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > > [@solost](#): > > > > Using ‘literally’ to mean ‘figuratively’-- “my head literally exploded when I heard the news”. Some say, eh, it’s just how language evolves, but I do have a problem with this usage. If literally _literally_ comes to mean figuratively, how do we express something that is actually literal? > > ‘Literally’ is never used _to mean_ ‘figuratively’.’ In the given phrase, the speaker is emphasizing that their head truly and actually did explode. They are NOT intending to say “please don’t believe me, I’m only exaggerating.” They’re telling you they’re _not_ exaggerating. This. I know it’s a whole other debate and people will disagree, but my view is that those who say people now use literally to mean figuratively misunderstand. Ironically, it’s a misunderstanding of language by people who are complaining about misunderstanding of language. People are not using literally _to mean_ figuratively. They are using literally figuratively, or perhaps more accurately they are using literally _hyperbolically_. They are using literally to mean literally but they are doing so hyperbolically. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/38 "2025-11-06T06:16:54Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > They are using literally to mean literally but they are doing so hyperbolically. True, but it still feels hilariously ironic. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/39 "2025-11-06T06:56:25Z")
i think we need to distinguish between two (possibly overlapping) senses of “literally”. First, it _is_ used to mean “figuratlvely”, and this use is documented at least as far back as the eighteenth century. The OED give us: > He is a fortunate man to be introduced to such a party of fine women at his arrival; it is literally to feed among the lilies. (1769) > He is, literally, made up of marechal powder, cravat, and bootees.(1801) ‘ > They’re literally throwing money at these programs,’ said a Ford Administration official. (1975) Secondly, it’s used to indicate that whatever is said is to be taken in the strongest admissible sense. Very often what is said is employs metaphor, as in the first and last quotes above; hence the overlap. What you have in these cases is a metaphor, intensified by appending “literally” to it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2025, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599/40 "2025-11-06T07:03:43Z")
All your examples are just examples of using literally hyperbolically, not examples of using literally to mean figuratively. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-idioms-and-acronyms-which-seem-to-indicate-the-opposite-of-what-is-intended/1024599.md?page=3)