A colloquial apology for telling an overly long story is “Sorry I had to go around my elbow to get to my thumb.” The phrase is also a handy way to indicate you took the opposite of a shortcut. This is part of a complete episode...
Coming down the pike means something is approaching or in the works, and it isn’t special legal jargon, even if Lucy in Indianapolis first heard it in law school about Supreme Court opinions. The pike is shortened from turnpike, a toll road once...
“The worm has turned” suggests a reversal of fortune, particularly the kind of situation in which a meek person begins behaving more confidently or starts defending himself. In other words, even the lowliest of creatures will still strike back if...
What phrases do you use to encourage others to pick themselves up and dust themselves off? What words do you say to acknowledge someone’s bad luck and encourage them to move on? In a discussion on our Facebook group, listeners offer lots of...
A Jackson, Mississippi, woman who used to work in Japan says that each day as she left the office, her colleagues would say Otsukaresama desu, which means something like “Thank you for your hard work.” Although its literal translation suggests that...
Someone who is likened to “a dog in the manger” is acting spitefully, claiming something they don’t even need or want in order to prevent others from having it. The story that inspired this phrase goes all the way back to ancient...