Share some favorite idioms

To be honest I dont know, but my gut feeling is that the original person would be let off and another BM would flog the first flogger,(Who wouldn’t feel very friendly to the person he was trying to give an easy time to after the event).
But if you had some sort of Draco as Captain/Commander then both would be flogged but thats just my guess.

Off topic but connected,we like to hold our hands up in horror nowadays at the brutality of the naval punishments of that era but civilians would receive the death penalty for the same or lesser offences.

I share their doubt,a bagged up cat would sound completely different to a piglet,and cloth piercing,needle sized claws are not usually found on members of the Pork fraternity.

I know it’s extremely common, but “Barking up the wrong tree” is still, to me, the most useful, concise, evocative, and humorous example in English.

In Iowa a child can be “Independent as a hog on ice.” and will hope he doesn’t get “Beat like stepchild.”

“My cahhh shit the bed” means ‘my automobile no longer runs for some expensive reason.’

“If my cat had kittens in the oven, I wouldn’t call 'em biscuits.” Said in reply to someone who claims he/she is a true Mainer since he/she was born in any other state but Maine, but moved to Maine when he/she was 6 months old and lived in Maine ever since.

“Thanks, deah.” Said in response to male or female waitstaff, toll attendant, etc.

“He’s so stupid he could f*** up a bucket of water.” (Self explanatory)

"He’s so stupid he can’t pour piss outta a boot with instructions on the heel. (Ditto)

“We’re rattling around like two beads in a bureau drawer.” Said in response to ‘how ya doin’?’

“You can’t make chicken outta chicken shit.” (The Maine version of 'you can’t make a silk purse out of a pig’s ear.)

“I should hope to kiss a pig!” An emphatic response to ‘Nah–ya don’t say!’

“Them docks usta be a good place ta fish til them outta-townahs put in all them BOWtiques.” Said by many old fisherman at any given port city in Maine.

"Wish in one hand, shit in the other–see which one fills up faster. Said in response to most any “I wish…” statement.

And my personal favorite:

“Here I sit
On the poopah–
Givin’ birth to a Maine State Troopah.”

“Don’t go visiting with both arms the same length.” (Bring a gift, which means that one arm would seem longer than the other.–Southern U.S.)
“He folded like a two-dollar suitcase.” (He gave in easily.–Western U.S.)
“Raining pitchforks and hammer handles.” (Raining hard–Midwestern U.S.)
“Can’t never could do nothing.” (Self-explanatory. U.S.)
“That boat’s only staying together because the termites are holding hands.” (It’s in bad shape–Maine, U.S.)
“You’re preaching to the Amen corner.” (You’re trying to convince people who already agree with you. Southern U.S.)
“He’s so ugly, if he fell in the Mississippi, you could skim ugly for a year.” (Southern U.S.)

“You can’t sweep sunshine off a porch.” (I don’t know what this means, but I like the sound of it. Western U.S.)

“She is the cat’s mother” - apparently its rude to use “she” when referring to your mother.

This is the way I’ve always heard it, too.

The Southern version of the Yiddish phrase mentioned upthread —

“Don’t piss on me and tell me it’s raining.”

“Going around the barn”–taking the long way to get somewhere or figure out a problem.

“A whorehouse of activity”–really busy.

“Boy, are you in the wrong church!”–I think I originated this one, meaning you are really wrong.

I know this is “Nailing Jell-o to a tree.”

Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard: “He’s as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”

I say “Well that’s better than a poke in the eye with a hot stick”, but I can’t take credit for it because I saw it in a local paper many years ago.

My mom had some good ones.

She described anything messy as looking like “the wreck of the Hesperus”.

She almost never swore, but once or twice, I heard her come out with, “Well, shit fire and save matches!”

And if she wanted to imply that someone (usually my dad) was going to make a bigger mess of things by “helping”, she’d say, “Here, let Uncle Dudley show you how”.

“We’re into the short rows.” - getting to the end of a project.

In the South, when harvesting tobacco, the shortest rows where usually at the edge of the field, and therefore were usually the last rows harvested.

For stupidity:
Dumb as a box of rocks.
A brick shy of a load.
A sandwich shy of a picnic.
Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Not the brightest light on the tree.
The wheel is spinning, but the hamster’s dead.

For a beautiful person with no personality:
Nice cage; no bird.

Fishing without success:
Drowning worms.

Self -explanatory:
Ain’t seen you in a coon’s age.
He’s got more money than God.
I’m so broke I can’t pay attention.
I’m allergic to alcohol. When I drink, I break out in handcuffs.

Oh, and River Hippie– “Built like a brick shithouse.”
I once had a gf who had never heard this expression until she heard someone say it about her (in high school). She thought it was a horrible insult and went home crying about it.

One of my favourites: “You make a better door than a window” – get out of my way, you’re blocking my view.

One of my wife’s (Chinese) favourites: “Wood door faces wood door, bamboo door faces bamboo door” – don’t try to marry above your station.

“Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there!”- I’m not sure what this means, but some people sure like saying it.

I once actually saw a group called Dick’s Hat Band.

I also like:
For someone overly enamored with another:
He thinks her shit don’t stink.

Also:
Drunk as Cooter Brown.
This is a common Southern expression and I’ve even heard Dolly Parton say it on TV, but nobody seems to know who Cooter Brown was. I reckon he was one helluva drunk sumbitch.

Heard this in a movie last night: “That cold wind was blowing so hard up my ass I’ll still be farting snowflakes come July”.
mmm

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Off like a prom dress

Out like the fat kid in dodgeball.

Shiftier than a shithouse rat.

Keep your powder dry.

Burning the midnight oil.

And a thousand variants of A few X short of a Y, implying your intelligence is questionable at best.