The idiom “rob Peter to pay Paul,” means “to borrow someone from someone in order to repay someone else.” In Nicaragua, the same idea is expressed by a phrase that translates as “take Juan’s clothes to give them...
When a jacket’s been on the hanger too long, the shoulders get punched out, meaning they become distended. The same principle is behind the term butt-sprung, which describes a skirt that’s distended by the wearer, and now applies to...
The origin of the phrase in the offing is nautical. The offing is the part of the ocean that one can see from shore, so if something’s in the offing, it’s not that far away. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of ““In the Offing”...
If you say they went “all the way around Robin’s barn,” it means they took a long, circuitous route. A San Antonio, Texas, listener wants to know: Who is Robin and why did he build his barn in such an inconvenient place? It’s...
Although a few sticklers cling to the traditional pronunciation of short-lived with a long i, the vast majority of Americans now pronounce short-lived with a short i. Long live the latter, we say. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...
There comes a time in life where waving hello means showing off some flabby underarm, but we have some slang to make “flabby underarm” sound a little less icky. A hi Betty takes its name from the idea of someone waving hi to a friend...