Phrases and their meaning

Some foreign phrases :-

In Italian, “not all doughnuts come with a hole” means you don’t always get what you want.

In German, “an elephant made out of a fly” means to make a big deal out of nothing.

In Italian, “to treat someone with a fish in their face” means to disrespect someone.

Funny b*ggars them foreigners

Aye, lad, them ferriners have a lot to answer to...

Borrowed from Scots lang may yer (or your) lum reek (expression of good wishes for one’s prosperity, literally “long may your chimney smoke”):[1] from lang (“long”),[2] lum (“chimney”),[3] and reek (“of a chimney: to emit smoke”).

"Aye, lad, them ferriners have a lot to answer to..."

Aye abd don't forget, them blinkin' Scots are foreigners too

Not by a long chalk.....

This mainly British expression means “not by any means”, “not at all” and often turns up in conventional expressions such as they weren't beaten yet, not by a long chalk. It goes back to the days in which a count or score of almost any kind was marked up on a convenient surface using chalk.

Two for the price of one:-

“You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear”.
“Make a pig’s ear of it”.

There's an old English saying, 'You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear,' meaning you can't make something of high quality from low-quality ingredients.
From this old saying is born another phrase, 'to make a pig's ear of it,' meaning to take something of sound origin.and mess it up beyond redemption.

"milk it for all its worth"?

I suspect this slang orginated in argicultural practices, where milking of cows, usually done twice daily, can provide slightly greater yields when performed 3 times daily. You get a bit more milk for a lot more work, so if you're really "milking" that cow, you're doing it to excess, with marginal benefit.

Pallywang

To hit a ball with an almighty force...

Apparently quite a common saying Wigan in past times.

Sick and tired (comparative more sick and tired, superlative most sick and tired)

(idiomatic) Bored to the point of weariness.

The boy was sick and tired of doing his lengthy homework assignment.

(idiomatic) Annoyed or frustrated with something or someone, to the point of losing one's temper or patience.

Synonym: fed up
She was sick and tired of her daughter pestering her to help her with her homework.

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sick,‎ tired.

I'm feeling both sick and tired right now.

Mrs RMJ used this phrase today as we went for our Covid booster jabs, they were very quiet at the doctors with no queue, the staff were hanging about waiting for people to come for their injections.
She said “are they stuck for bobbins?”.
I’d never heard it before, when I did some Googling here’s what I found :-
“Are you stuck for bobbins?” meaning, have you got no cotton to work with, ie have you got no work to do.
Obviously a hark back to the textile industry, where bobbins were used.
This phrase then became common place for anyone who had no work to do, anywhere, not just in cotton mills.
Most of the cotton mills have closed down now and the word 'bobbins' has since changed to mean something is poor quality or rubbish, “that’s a load of bobbins”.

As a post script, Mrs RMJ is from Hindley Green, well somebody has to live there !!!!!
My dear old Mother-in-Law, sadly no longer with us used to say that Hindley Greeners were known as “petty door bangers” LOL

A lovely story, Ray..thank you..............

You're very welcome Admin.
I enjoy doing these 'phrases'.

I've been married to Mrs RMJ for 55 years and I've never heard her say that before about 'bobbins'.
She used to work for the TSB and apparently her boss, an older man, would use it if they were sat about doing nowt

To be sozzled...

Very drunk.

What is the origin of the word sozzled?
Etymology. sozzle to splash, intoxicate, alteration of sossle, probably frequentative of British dialect soss to mess. First Known Use. circa 1880, in the meaning defined above.

Some foreign phrases :-

In Portuguese, “he who doesn’t have a dog, hunts with cats” means you make the most of what you’ve been given.

In Spanish, “a cat in gloves catches no mice” means nice guys always finish last.

in Spanish, “a lot of noise and no walnuts” means someone’s all talk and no action.

and they all make sense in English.....................

Tha cawnt put owt weer there is nowt.

No matter how much you try to cannot explain something to someone lacking in grey matter you won’t succeed.

I'm sure we all know folk like that Broady

In a previous life I seemed to attract them.

“Throw the baby out with the bathwater”, removing something good while trying to remove something bad.

Come home to roost.


or chickens come home to roost.......

If bad or wrong things that someone has done in the past have come home to roost, or if their chickens have come home to roost, they are now experiencing the unpleasant effects of these actions.
Appeasement has come home to roost.
Politicians can fool some people some of the time, but in the end, the chickens come home to roost.

“To fight fire with fire”, to respond to an attack by using the same tactic or method as the attacker.
Although expressed in military terms it can mean other kinds of fighting, which could be competing with someone in an entirely peaceful activity.
It also has a literal meaning as in fire-fighters using fires in combating fires.

To leave a party without telling anyone is called in English a “French Exit.”
In French, it’s called a “Partir à l’Anglaise,” to leave like the English.

Donnybrook...


free-for-all, brawl


donnybrook • \DAH-nee-brook\ • noun. 1 : free-for-all, brawl 2 : a usually public quarrel or dispute. Examples: The two antique collectors found themselves embroiled in a spirited donnybrook over the value of an unusual piece of furniture at the auction. "

“Work your socks off”, “Run your socks off” – to do something very hard or well.

“Laugh your socks off" – to laugh very hard.

“Knock / blow your socks off” - to affect or impress someone in a very strong and favourable way.

Two expressions with the same meaning :-

“Using a sledge hammer to crack a nut” - using stronger measures than are really necessary to solve a problem.

“Break a butterfly upon the wheel” - to use far more force than is necessary to do something.

Good one, lad.................