Idiom America: Recent Episodes
Semevent
A podcast that takes a look at the origin and history of some of those gems of language, idioms, and then goes from there.
Woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle; Just like riding a bike; Soft-pedal; Cyclopath
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick; Speak softly and carry a big stick; More XYZ than you can shake a stick at;.
Over the moon; The moon is made of green cheese; Love you to the moon and back; Shoot the moon; Moonshot; Ask for the moon; Moon on a stick; Cast beyond the moon; Barking at the moon; Harvest moon; Blood moon; Moon-faced; Moongazing
Potpourri; Perpetual stew; Potlatch; Pot of gold at the end of a rainbow; Tosspot; Fusspot; Honeypot; Sexpot; Pretty kettle of fish
Dollar Diplomacy; Panda Diplomacy; Writing history with lightning; Bottled lightning; THE Congress
Once more unto the breach; More honored in the breach than the observance; Drop the gloves; Gloves are off; Iron fist in a velvet glove; Next into the breach; Run the gantlet
Ни пуха ни пера, Break a leg; Когда рак на горе свистнет, When pigs fly; Делать из мухи слона, Make a mountain out of a molehill; Не в своей тарелке, Not in one’s element, or like a fish out of water; Первый блин всегда комом; Prvi se mačići u vodu bacaju; Bogu iza nogu; Ne traži dlaku u jajetu; Mlatiti praznu slamu, Beat a dead horse; There’s no cow on the ice; Go pick mushrooms; The carrots are cooked; Stretch your legs as far as your blanket extends; To speak directly from the liver; To push something with your belly; Did you fall from a Christmas tree; God bless you and may your mustache grow like brushwood.
Slang: Bussin'; Slappin; Slay; 'Sup; Aight; Word; Hella; Shiznit; The bomb; Booyah; Oh snap; As if; Not!; Whatever!
Can't get blood from a stone; Fresh off the boat; Cabbage-head; Turnip-head; I don't boil my cabbage twice; I'm not so green as cabbage looking; Cornbread; Cornball; Hokey; Easy as shelling peas; Thick as pea soup
Use a sledgehammer to crack a nut; Throw a spanner in the works; Bodies upon the gears; Maslow's hammer; Between the hammer and the anvil; Between a rock and a hard place; Drop the hammer on; Go under the hammer; Dumb as a bag of hammers; Dumb as a box of rocks; Not the sharpest tool in the shed; Sledgehammer argument; Poor craftsman that blames his tools; Tools of the trade; Tool around
Rub shoulders with; Rub your hands with glee; Rub of the green; Rub out; Rub someone's nose in it; Ruffle someone's feathers
Old bean; Bean time; Bean wagon; Not have a bean; String bean; Beanpole; Bean head; Not know beans; Boring as beans
Out at elbows; Out at heels; Drag your heels; Set back on your heels; At someone's heels; Hard on someone's heels; Hot on someone's heels; Under the thumb; Show a clean pair of heels; Cop a heel; Spin on one's heels; Turn on your heels; Fall head over heels in love; Head over heels in debt; Real heel
Hang up one's hat; Tin foil hat; Hang on to your hat; To wear more than one hat; Pooh-bah
Bad egg; Don't put all your eggs in one basket; Egg money; Bald as an egg; Which came first, the chicken or the egg; Over-egg the pudding; Egging; Teaching your grandma to suck eggs; Rotten egg; Last one in is a rotten egg; Can't boil an egg; Can't unboil an egg.
Blowing smoke up someone's ass; Smoke the peace pipe; Smokescreen; Holy smoke(s); What have you been smoking
Since one was knee-high to a duck; Lovely weather for ducks; Like water off a duck's back; Duck face; If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, then it must be a duck.
Rock the boat; bully pulpit; mollycoddle; muckraking; pull yourself up by the bootstraps; lunatic fringe; loose cannon
A cut above; Casting pearls before swine; Pearl of great price; Pearls of wisdom; Idaho the gem state
You can't unring a bell; Ring somebody's bell; Saved by the bell; Wear the cap and bells; All the bells and whistles; Sound as a bell.
Sell the family silver; Sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage; Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth; Serve something on a silver platter.
Spoils system; cronyism; strange bedfellows; pork-barrel; To the victor go the spoils; Buffalo x 8; Kid gloves.
Gobble, gobble; Eat like a bird; Stuffed shirt; The rest is gravy; Ride the gravy train; As American as apple pie.
Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs; Golden goose; Goose up; Goose-stepping; Loose as a goose, loosey goosey; Silly goose; Take a gander
Two-faced; Contronyms; Sugar-coated; Demonyms; Michigander; House divided, Illeism; Come in handy; Corporation; Do the math.
Keep the ball rolling; Booze; Peculation, defalcation, and condign; 54-50 or fight!; Bed of roses; Twiddling one's thumbs; Dark horse; Confirmed bachelor.
Ok!! Washington, Jefferson, administration, nip it in the bud, squatters, gag rule, worth one's salt etc.
Cat on a hot tin roof; Pussyfooting; Cat burglar; Bell the cat; Scaredy cat; Copycat; Catnap; Dead cat bounce; Fat cat
Curiosity killed the cat; A cat's nine lives; Let the cat out of the bag; Not enough room to swing a cat, etc.
In addition to the above, looks at idioms like better dead than red, red alert, raise a red flag, see red, not one red cent, red-letter days, roll out the red carpet, and paint the town red.
Takes a look at idioms involving "tide," as well at the tide that shows up in words like yuletide and tidings. Also visits the topics of tidal power and the moon's wobble.
Looks at idioms involving the act of "tying," as well as "cat got your tongue," typography, and knots.
This second episode looks at idioms such as "pulling out all the stops," "bats in the belfry," "dead ringer," and more, and features a Josh Ritter lyric, pipe organs, and coffins.
Looks at idioms like "full of vim and vigor," "long in the tooth," and "playing hooky," as well as digging a hole for a trampoline.