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Quiz about Can You Pass This Cliche Quiz with Flying Colors
Quiz about Can You Pass This Cliche Quiz with Flying Colors

Can You Pass This Cliche Quiz with Flying Colors?


Whether you achieve a feather in your cap, do fair to middling, or fall from grace, I hope you enjoy learning a few facts about some cliches that have a key word beginning with the letter "F".

A multiple-choice quiz by alaspooryoric. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
372,014
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
1286
Awards
Top 20% Quiz
Last 3 plays: vlk56pa (9/10), Guest 172 (5/10), Ittyboo (7/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. When I was growing up and helping my father about the farm, he would sometimes tell me to "fish or cut bait". Which of the following best represents what he was trying to tell me? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. To be "far from the madding crowd" means to be in a quiet, peaceful place, somewhere away from all of the turmoil and worries of mankind. However, do you know the literary source of this idiom's origin? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Let's say you were trying to convince someone that the information you were passing on to him or her is most certainly true. Which expression below might you use to explain the source of your information? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. If a problem remains unresolved because those who could have addressed the issue have remained inactive, indecisive, or indifferent, which cliche below best serves as a description of that problem? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. A friend of mine was talking about growing up being the son of a military man. He said that he often felt as if he were being moved "from pillar to post". Which explanation below best explains what my friend meant? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Some people, when trying to describe someone or something as being of the highest quality, will describe this person or thing as being of the "first water." What is the origin of this expression? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Matthew had been stealing supplies at work for several months. Eventually, someone noticed too many items were missing and reported his discovery to the supervisor. Now, an innocent person was being blamed for the theft. Matthew asked Donald, a friend, for advice, and Donald suggested that Matthew go to the supervisor, tell the truth, and accept the consequences, however unpleasant they may be. Which expression below could substitute for Donald's advice to Matthew? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. If you wished to declare that something someone said or did was not funny, particularly when that individual thought he or she was making an attempt to be funny, you would say, "That was as 'funny as a _________.'" What item below would complete this idiom? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. If you're going to take a nap, you're supposed to take some winks. However, the question is . . . just how many winks are you supposed to take, according to the popular expression? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. My grandfather would often remark, "I'm as fit as a fiddle." What was he saying? Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. When I was growing up and helping my father about the farm, he would sometimes tell me to "fish or cut bait". Which of the following best represents what he was trying to tell me?

Answer: Do something or get out of the way, but don't just stand there.

Generally speaking, the expression means that a person needs to take action and stop delaying. The original expression was "fish or cut bait or go ashore", and it appears to have originated among the commercial fishing industry during the 1800s. The fellow who loafed was obviously not very popular and was told that he either needed to get to work (by catching fish or preparing bait so others could catch fish) or he needed to quit or perhaps be fired.

The expression can also be used to tell someone to stop procrastinating and make a choice.

For example, you might tell someone who was remaining in a horrible relationship and thinking about separating that he or she needs to "fish or cut bait". The expression appeared in print for the first time in 1876 in the "Congressional Record" when Representative Joseph G. Cannon said: "Now I want you gentlemen on the other side of the House to 'fish or cut bait'. Gentlemen of the other side, do something positive for once during this session."
2. To be "far from the madding crowd" means to be in a quiet, peaceful place, somewhere away from all of the turmoil and worries of mankind. However, do you know the literary source of this idiom's origin?

Answer: Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

While many are perhaps more familiar with Thomas Hardy's "Far from the Madding Crowd" and the film adaptations of the story, this novel is not the original source of the expression. Hardy himself borrowed the words for his title from a line in Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", which was published in 1750. Gray was a scholar and professor at Cambridge University, and his poetry generally falls between the Neo-Classical and Romantic eras. Some of his other poems include "Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College" and "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes".

"Madding", a word rarely used anymore in the English language, means "acting in a frenzied manner".
3. Let's say you were trying to convince someone that the information you were passing on to him or her is most certainly true. Which expression below might you use to explain the source of your information?

Answer: From the horse's mouth

When someone says, "This came straight from the horse's mouth," he or she means, "I'm telling you the truth" or "This information comes from a most reliable, authoritative, and credible source." The expression's origin lies in the twentieth century, and there are two explanations for its origin.

Some argue that it comes from betting on race horses as a tongue-in-cheek expression. Those who bet on horse races are often looking for credible sources of information about the health, stamina, and superior or inferior qualities of the horses as well as the likelihood of horses' winning and placing and so on.

While one source may claim he or she got information from a trainer or a jockey or a stablehand, another source might claim, "Well, I got my information straight from the horse's mouth," suggesting that his or her information is the most accurate because, after all, there is no one who knows more about the horses than the horses themselves, right? However, more tend to agree with the explanation that the expression comes from the age-old lore that one can tell the truth about a horse's age by looking at the teeth in the horse's mouth. Often, those selling horses would lie about the age and health of the horses they were selling, and a buyer would insist on looking at the horse's teeth before committing to a purchase, for a horse's teeth appear as pairs in certain stages of a horse's development and one could tell the approximate age of a horse by looking at which teeth had and had not appeared.

This practice is also the source of the idiom "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." If you're not paying for the horse, there's no need to examine its teeth--just accept what's being given you for free and without complaint.
4. If a problem remains unresolved because those who could have addressed the issue have remained inactive, indecisive, or indifferent, which cliche below best serves as a description of that problem?

Answer: Fallen between two stools

"Fallen between two stools" is often said of a problem that lands between two people or agencies that are expected to handle the problem but fail to do so because they are inept or uncaring, or perhaps each of the agents is expecting the other to do something.

It can also be said of something that fails to be of any use because it does not satisfy either party. For example, a new electronic device may be too complicated for common users yet not sophisticated enough for those who are truly tecnologically adept; thus, no one buys or uses the new item.

The item has "fallen between two stools." Finally, the expression can also be used to describe one individual who cannot make a decision between two alternatives and is therefore stuck in a state of inaction.

For example, Richard has "fallen between two stools" because he cannot decide whether to remodel his house or sell his house and buy another. Nevertheless, however the expression is used, there is always the implication that nothing is being accomplished.

The expression perhaps comes from classical Roman times and is not found in English until at least 1390 when it appeared in John Gower's "Confessio Amantis": "Bot it is seid . . . Between two Stoles lyth the fal." A later form of the expression was "Between two stools one goes to the ground." Obviously, the image being considered is that of an individual who attempts to sit on either of two different stools that are side-by-side but is so absentminded or distracted that he or she misses both and lands between the two stools on his or her bottom.
5. A friend of mine was talking about growing up being the son of a military man. He said that he often felt as if he were being moved "from pillar to post". Which explanation below best explains what my friend meant?

Answer: He and his family were always moving from one home to another.

"From pillar to post" means "from one place or thing to another"; sometimes, the implication is that the constant moving is repetitive, and sometimes, the implication is that the constant motion is aimless. Most often the cliche is used to refer to people who are constantly on the move, but the expression can be used to describe something that is being passed around.

For example, one might say that a piece of gossip passed "from pillar to post," meaning that it travelled randomly from one person to another.

There are two explanations for the origin of this expression. The most likely explanation is that "pillar" and "post" referred to parts of a tennis court in older times when tennis was a more ornate game played on lawns. A bouncing ball would be described as moving from pillar to post.

However, another explanation is that "pillar" is a derivation of "pillory", a wooden framework with holes for the hands and head that was used as a form of punishment while "post" refers to a "whipping post". Punishment in the military in the past often consisted of being whipped and then locked into a pillory.

This explanation of the origin of the expression is lent credence by the fact that older forms of the expression often ordered the words "from post to pillar".
6. Some people, when trying to describe someone or something as being of the highest quality, will describe this person or thing as being of the "first water." What is the origin of this expression?

Answer: an outdated grading system for diamonds

For centuries, diamonds were graded as "first water", "second water", or "third water" because of a diamond's resemblance to water in its clarity and translucence. The clearest and most valuable diamonds would be graded "of the first water". Now the expression exists only as a figurative expression.

For example, one might say, "George is one of the finest people I have ever met; he is 'of the first water'." One of the earliest written recordings of the expression used in a figurative manner is from an 1825 text entitled "Sayings and Doings" by Theodore E. Hook: "He was certain her family were by no means of 'the first water.'"
7. Matthew had been stealing supplies at work for several months. Eventually, someone noticed too many items were missing and reported his discovery to the supervisor. Now, an innocent person was being blamed for the theft. Matthew asked Donald, a friend, for advice, and Donald suggested that Matthew go to the supervisor, tell the truth, and accept the consequences, however unpleasant they may be. Which expression below could substitute for Donald's advice to Matthew?

Answer: Face the music.

"Face the music" means to confront or cope with a difficult or unpleasant situation, often accepting the consequences for something for which one is responsible or for which one is to blame. The origin of this idiom is uncertain. Some believe that the "music" of the expression refers to that of the pit orchestra in a theater.

A nervous actor who steeled him or herself to go on stage would be facing the music (as well as the audience, of course). Others claim that the origin lies in the military.

When a soldier was being dismissed from his regiment in disgrace, it was sometimes the practice for the band to play the "Rogue's March".
8. If you wished to declare that something someone said or did was not funny, particularly when that individual thought he or she was making an attempt to be funny, you would say, "That was as 'funny as a _________.'" What item below would complete this idiom?

Answer: crutch

To say that something is as "funny as a crutch" is to declare that someone made a feeble attempt at humor or that something was not funny at all. Obviously, there is nothing funny about a crutch, for crutches are often inconvenient if not bothersome and, because of the occasions for their use, they are associated with pain and impairment.

The expression is then meant to be an insult to those whose attempts at humor are inept or are in bad taste. "American Notes and Queries" suggested in 1947 that a book published in 1869 by Alonzo F. Hill--"John Smith's Funny Adventures on a Crutch; or, The Remarkable Peregrinations of a One Legged Soldier After the War"--might have been the source.
9. If you're going to take a nap, you're supposed to take some winks. However, the question is . . . just how many winks are you supposed to take, according to the popular expression?

Answer: forty

"Forty winks" is a brief nap as opposed to a deep sleep, usually during the middle of the day or during a break from work or an ongoing task. The word "wink" has been a term used for "sleep" since the fourteenth century, presumably because closing the eyelids to sleep is an action similar to closing them to wink. Perhaps a short nap would be equivalent to a succession of a number of winks.

However, why the number forty became the number selected for the expression remains a mystery. Many argue that the number forty may have become popular because of its frequency in the Bible.

Others claim the number was selected because a few centuries ago forty was used to designate an indefinite number for "many." For example, while today we might say, "I've told you a thousand times to be quiet," someone from the past would have said, "I've told you forty times to be quiet."
10. My grandfather would often remark, "I'm as fit as a fiddle." What was he saying?

Answer: I'm in fine health.

To be "fit as a fiddle" means to be "in fine shape" or "to be feeling well." Fiddles, or violins, are admired for their sound and sometimes for their trim and symmetrical shape. Some are, of course, quite valuable. In the past, to say "his face is made of a fiddle" was once a way of describing someone as charming.

However, fiddles do not have good health or any health at all, for that matter. Thus, the "fit" part of the expression is bewildering. Only recently has the word "fit" come to mean "in good health" or "to have a healthy and attractive body." At the time of the origin of this expression, "fit" meant "to be of fine quality" or "to be appropriate or proper." "Fit as a fiddle" was originally used to describe an appropriate situation; for example, one might have said, "She made such an effort to prepare her table for her guests that it was as fit as a fiddle." However, as the meaning of the word "fit" began to change in the 1800's to refer to health, the expression's meaning changed as well.
Source: Author alaspooryoric

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor looney_tunes before going online.
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This quiz is part of series Alphabetical Idioms:

In this collection, you will encounter a quiz for each letter of the alphabet A - Z. Each quiz is about idioms, clichés, proverbs, etc. with a key word beginning with the letter focused on by that quiz.

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