Not a stupid phrase, exactly, but one that is consistently mis-applied, often by people who should know better. ‘To grow like Topsy’ does not mean ‘to grow very quickly or to an unusual degree’. It means ‘to grow as if from nowhere, without any single or known source’.
Topsy is a little girl in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. When she is asked where she came from, she says words to the effect of, ‘I don’t know, I guess I just growed’.
If there is a rumour going round but no-one really knows how it got started, one might say ‘it grew like Topsy’.
One that is stupid, and a pet hate of mine, is ‘It’s more than my job’s worth’. In every case where someone says, ‘It’s more than my job’s worth…’, what they really mean is that the action or option you have suggested is worth less than their job. If your suggested action was worth more, they would be well-advised to pursue it, wouldn’t they? This is a very common phrase here in England. It has even given rise to a noun, ‘a jobsworth’, meaning someone who could be nice and co-operative but who chooses instead to be unhelpful and a stickler for petty details.
Is it not the cost of the action that is discussed?
i.e. “The cost of me doing this action as part of my job will not be matched by any reward that accrues, therefore this costs/is more than my job is worth”
I agree with you, Ximenean: saying “chomping at the bit” instead of “champing” bugs me, too.
Also:
“Back in the day” What day? When?
“Want me to come with?” With…with??
It’s Germanic, maybe Pennsylvania Dutch or Yiddish. In German, lots of verbs have separable parts, and - Yoda-like - many verbs at the end of the sentence come. So, more or less, the verb used is really “with-come”. That is, it’s really not all that ungrammatical - just sort of.