Sayings

[Minibit]

do you have any phrases or sayings you especially like? Do they have a nice ring to them, amuse you in some way, or just get their meaning across in a memorable way? If so, please share, and be sure to include the meaning behind the phrase, maybe we can expand our vocabularies at the same time!

Please note I'm asking about sayings and phrases that are integrated into the English language and are or were commonly used, not references or quotes

I personally like:

"Take no prisoners" (be ruthless, powerful, show no mercy, dont worry about collateral, usually used in a violent context)

"Like a hot knife through butter" (with extreme or astonishing ease)

"A slight"/"to slight someone" (to snub, dismiss, or disclude a person in a mildly offensive way)

"An unsung hero" (a heroic person who never gets recognized for their heroism, often a posthumous phrase)

"Spiral into insanity" (to go insane, to gradually lose ones wits)

"Bite the dust" (die)

"Put the pedal to the metal" (push the [accekerator] pedal all the way down for maximum speed)

"Raise hell" (cause chaos or disorder)

"Seen some shit" (to have borne witness to [often traumatizing] events)

"Swear on a stack of bibles" (to be especially earnest that what you've said is truth)

"Creme de la creme" (the best of the best)

"Swear like a sailor/trucker" (to be especially foul mouthed)

"Say your prayers" (prepare to die)

"Down to brass tacks" (to concentrate on the fundamentals)

"Dance with the devil" (to make a great gamble, to deal in sinful affairs, to contend with the greatest evil)

"To be somebody" (to make a [known] name for oneself, to become successful or significant)

"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't" (a familiar evil is better/safer than a new or unpredictable one)

"Blood money" (money paid in exchange for an evil or violent deed, most commonly murder)

"Mind your p's and q's" (evolved to mean consciously having manners/Ettiquette, this originated from the phrase "mind your pints and quarts", and referred to averting your eyes and keeping out of it if trouble started up (in a bar or pub))

There's probably more, I'll add later :)

 

[Marceline29]

Bloody hell.

 

[LogicfromLogic]

Giving you shit.

 

[Razilin]

Experience is the thing you get when you can't undo the thing you did.

 

[Ochalla]

"Knee hight to a grass hopper" - a child, usually used in past tense.

Only one off the top of my head (oh wait that's one too)

 

[Fentanyl]

Killing Two Birds with One Stone (Accomplishing two things at once)

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place (In a position where there is not a right answer)

Don't Beat a Dead Horse (Attempting or doing something over and over, usually with poor results.)

The Elephant in the Room (Something important that is being purposefully overlooked or unaddressed. Something no one wants to talk about, but knows about.)

Idioms are awesome.

 

[The Nexerus]

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

Definitely my favourite. The desperation cry of megalomaniacs everywhere.

 

[Fentanyl]

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

But you can drown a horse.

 

[Windsong]

My dad has a pile of them I try to remember all the time. It always gets people's attention.

• Useless as tits on a chicken.
• Colder than a witches' nipple.
• If I'm not dead I'm probably hunting.

There are plenty more, but these are what I hear the most.

 

[Hatsune Candy]

Bloody hell.

Stole the words right of my bloody mouth.

Also:

• "I like how..." -When pointing out the flaws of something.
• "Ya don't say?" -When some says something really obvious.
• "Good to know" -When you secretly don't really care that much.
• "What is this, I don't even" or "I (literally) can't even" -When you're speechless about whatever the crap you've just seen/heard.
• "Well that's just great" -When things are the opposite of great.
• "Joy." - When there is no joy to be felt.

I'm love using sarcasm, so a lot of my favorite phrases have absolutely nothing to do with sarcasm whatsoever.

 

[iMisterH]

Here are a few that I've heard of and use sometimes:

• Bite the bullet. (To accept something difficult or unpleasant)
• Butter someone up. (To flatter someone)
• Caught red-handed. (To be caught doing something wrong)
• Rub the wrong way. (To irritate or bother someone)
• Rule of thumb. (A common, ubiquitous benchmark)
• Show your true colours. (To reveal one's true nature)

 

[Asuras]

Let sleeping dogs lie.
Loose cannon!
Southpaw.

 

[Drakel]

Fucking Magical!

 

[Brovo]

"That was pretty wizard." (Cool/Kickass, usually in a magical/fantastical connotation.)

 

[Razilin]

ball-slappingly

 

[Jorick]

I quite enjoy the various sayings we have for calling someone stupid. "Not the sharpest tool in the shed" and "not playing with a full deck" and "a few ants short of a picnic" and "sharp as a bowling ball" and "the elevator doesn't quite make it to the top floor" and so on. They amuse me greatly.

"Actions speak louder than words" is pretty nice because the meaning is good and it kind of explains itself. For those of you who are a few clowns short of a circus, it means you can judge someone's intentions better by their actions than by what they say.

"Bite off more than you can chew," meaning to take on some task that is actually too much for you, is another one I like because it's pretty obvious, and as a bonus it inspires a nice mental visual to go with it.

"Cross that bridge when you come to it" (meaning deal with an issue if/when it becomes a problem, rather than worrying about it beforehand) is one I like mainly because it makes me think of someone who's terrified of bridge collapses freaking out about a bridge they'll have to cross in 20 miles or so and they end up having a panic attack and never even make it to the bridge because they turn and go back like a pansy.

"There's a method to my madness" (an assertion that despite the seeming randomness of the situation there is actually a structure to it) is one I like because it's a very useful explanation for both my often roundabout way of solving problems and the utter mess that is the permanent state of my computer desk.

And finally, I also like a lot of common phrases that use the word fuck in all its glorious variety.

"Fuck me" - astonishment or despair
"Fuck off" - telling someone to go away
"Fuck that" - an expression of distaste for something
"Fucked over" - swindled or betrayed
"What the fuck?" - confusion, curiosity, disbelief
"Fucked up" - ruined/broken or intoxicated

So on and so forth.

 

[Fentanyl]

"Fuck me" - astonishment or despair
"Fuck off" - telling someone to go away
"Fuck that" - an expression of distaste for something
"Fucked over" - swindled or betrayed
"What the fuck?" - confusion, curiosity, disbelief
"Fucked up" - ruined/broken or intoxicated

So on and so forth.

And my personal favorite:

"Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition"

Which I think is fairly obvious.

 

[Razilin]

snafu

 

[Brovo]

In the Techie World...

PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

It's a nice way to tell other techies while a client is in the room that the client is a goddamn technically illiterate imbecile.

 

[Cpt Toellner]

"Ignorance is bliss."

I find myself thinking it again and again, and I mutter it beneath my breath on many occasions.