Eileen remembers a nursing-home resident who liked her tea barefoot, meaning without milk or sugar. The slang use goes back at least to the mid-19th century and can also describe plain coffee or liquor taken straight, with evidence from English...
“Save your breath to cool your soup” is centuries old, including variants with porridge, pottage, broth, and other things. In all those cases, it’s a wry way to tell someone to be less long-winded. This is part of a complete...