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Idiom of the Week: A fly on the wall
Invisibility is a super power many people have daydreamed about. IGN ranks it as the second best super power – just after the ability to fly – and it is easy to see why this ability is so sought after. It would allow you to find out what people really think about you, or how…
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Idiom of the Week: Dark horse
Since last week we talked about elephants in rooms being ignored, we decided that this week’s idiom should also be animal-related. This time, the subject is the expression dark horse. This concept is used in different contexts, particularly in politics, although the term originated from horse racing. In that particular context, a dark horse was…
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Idiom of the Week: the elephant in the room
Animals stuck in rooms are apparently a great source for idioms. Remember our post about there being „no room to swing a cat„? Today we will finally address the elephant in the room. Parts of this idiom are fairly straightforward. It is easy to imagine a standard living room, and it is easy to imagine…
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Idiom of the Week: Moving the goalposts
Have you ever been in a discussion with someone who constantly frustrates the point you are trying to make by unfairly changing the rules of the argument to fit their side of the discussion? That action is called moving the goalposts, and it is this week’s idiom. If you think about it, the unfairness of…
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Idiom of the Week: a skeleton in the closet
For this week’s idiom, we have picked the common English expression to have a skeleton in the closet. When someone is said to have a skeleton in the closet, it means that they have a secret that could cause shame or controversy if it were to be exposed – the way the person is perceived…
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Brand New Neologisms
Do you know what a neologism is? Put together from the Greek neo-, ’new‘ and logos, ‚word‘, the term describes just what is sounds like: a newly minted word or expression. Most of the time, it is difficult or impossible to trace the origins of a neologism unless it stems from a particular field of…
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Idiom of the Week: Kill two birds with one stone
This week’s idiom is a very common expression not only in English, but also in a lot of different languages around the world: to kill two birds with one stone. While the precise phrasing of the idioms understandably differs between the languages – some prefer killing rabbits or flies – they all share the meaning…
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Idiom of the Week: Add fuel to the fire
If you hear someone is adding fuel to the fire it means that they are causing a conflict or tense situation to worsen, making it even more tense than it already was. This is a common and straightforward idiom and it is usually used when someone instigates further conflict through provocative statements – even if…
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Idiom of the Week: The last straw
When you keep trying to reach the limit of what is possible, there are several potential outcomes. If you are lucky, you might succeed at your endeavour and everything is well. However, the opposite is just as likely. Sooner or later you might reach critical mass, a point of no return. This is the last…
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Idiom of the Week: No room to swing a cat
When you find yourself in a particularly small room you might think about hardly being able to move.One way to express the this idea is by saying there is “no room to swing a cat”. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Huh? Who would swing a cat?