Alphabetical Idioms Trivia

1. When you are quite certain of a particular outcome, what is it that "you can bet", according to an overly used American expression?

From Quiz More Cliches Yada Yada

Answer: your bottom dollar

"You can bet your bottom dollar" is what you might say to someone when you wish to convey to that person that he or she can be sure of something. The speaker of the phrase is claiming that he or she is so certain of a particular outcome that if he or she had only one dollar left to spend in life, he or she would still bet that one dollar. I suppose, too, that you could picture a stack of paper money and that the speaker has lost or spent all of that money except for the dollar at the bottom of that stack; nevertheless, the speaker is so certain of a particular outcome that he or she would have no problem betting that very last dollar. We're talking about absolute confidence here. One of the earliest written recordings of the expression is found in an 1856 publication of the "La Crosse Independent Republican": "I'm goin' to vote for you--you can bet your bottom dollar on that!"

From Quiz Without Further Ado . . . More Cliches!

Answer: decreased or suspended breathing

Many misspell the word "bated" as "baited" so as to write "wait with baited breath". However, "bate" is an abbreviated or contracted form of "abate", which means "to become less intense of widespread" or "to decrease, diminish, or halt". Thus, to "wait with bated breath" refers to the typical physical reaction of those who are waiting with anticipation or suspense. People in this situation tend to stand or sit very still while their breathing becomes less intense or shallow if it doesn't, in fact, momentarily cease. William Shakespeare wrote the following lines in "The Merchant of Venice": "Shall I bend low and in a bondman's key, / With bated breath and whispering humbleness, Say this . . .". Much later, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) wrote in "Adam Bede", "To his dying day he bated his breath a little when he told the story". Through examples such as these, one can see that "bate" refers to decreasing or restraining the breath in some fashion.

From Quiz Ups-A-Daisy! It's More Cliches!

Answer: Her restaurant met the expected standards.

To say something is "up to par" is to say that it is "normal", that it has reached the standard that is usually accepted as satisfactory and perhaps as average. Most assume that the origin of the expression "up to par" lies in the sport of golf; however, the word is older than the game. The word comes from the Latin "par", which means "equal", and the English use of the word was originally to refer to something that was equal to the value of something else used as a standard. One of the earlier references to "par" as an idiom occurs in Laurence Sterne's 1767 novel "Tristram Shandy": ". . . the livre or two above par for your supper and bed".

From Quiz Tried and True Cliches

Answer: traveling through wooded country

Originally, the expression existed as "through thicket and thin wood", and it evolved from a time when England was mostly an island covered with woods and few roads. Travelers, particularly those on horseback, would have to be determined to arrive at their destinations if they were to ride through not only the grassy pockets of land with sparse trees but the thickly wooded areas as well. The phrase occurs in the "Exeter Book", which dates from the late tenth century and is one of the few remaining texts written in Old English. Chaucer later refers to the phrase in "The Reeve's Tale" from his "Canterbury Tales" from around 1386: "And whan the hors was laus, he gynneth gon / Toward the fen, ther wilde mares renne, / And forth with 'wehee,' thurgh thikke and thurgh thenne" [And when the horse was loose, he begins to go / Toward the fen, where wild mares run / And forth with whinny, through thick and through thin]". Edmund Spenser also uses the phrase in his "Faerie Queene" in 1590: "Through thicke and thin, both over banck and bush". These texts plainly demonstrate the literal references to horses traveling through the woods.

From Quiz Quote, Unquote Cliches

Answer: quaff

To "quaff a brew" is to drink a container of beer or ale quite heartily and deeply. "Brew" rather obviously stems from the method in which beers and ales are made. "Quaff" is another matter entirely. The word's use seems to have begun sometime in the early 1500s, but why it began to be used as a synonym for "drinking" is unknown. Some speculate that it is a derivation of the Germanic "quassen", which means "to overindulge in drink or food". Others believe the word to be the result of onomatopoeia; apparently, some must have thought "quaff" represents the sound the back of the throat makes as one gulps or swallows. The expression allows for other potables as well; one may quaff a glass of wine, water, juice, etc.

From Quiz Old Saws and Cliches

Answer: the ropes of a boxing ring

The ropes in "on the ropes" refer to those surrounding a boxing ring. A fighter who is literally on them is usually in trouble and not performing very well in the fight--at least at that moment. Boxers avoid getting near the ropes because there is a great risk of getting pinned against them without much room to move, particularly in the corners. The only time a boxer seems to grab the ropes is during an attempt to keep from falling down or during an attempt to pull him or herself up again. Pierce Egan used the expression in "Boxiana", the title of an 1820s article published in "Blackwood's Magazine": "Lenny found himself hanging on the ropes, where he was milled down".

From Quiz Cliches to Make Your Mouth Water!

Answer: the use of locomotives and railroads

To "make the grade" is "to come up to a standard" or "to achieve a desired result". When building railroads, those responsible for their construction must consider the angle or steepness of an incline when laying track up and over a hill or across a mountainous terrain. Americans referred to this incline as the "grade". If a locomotive could successfully pull its weight and that of the train of cars it was pulling up a particular incline, then it was said to have "made the grade". The transferred meaning, describing success at anything, seems to have occurred later in the twentieth century. In 1930, an article in "Publishers Weekly" contained the following words: "Can the seasonal bookshop make the grade . . . ?"

From Quiz Lo and Behold! More Cliches?

Answer: little bird

Suppose someone asks how you know he or she is going to receive an award. You might respond, "Let's just say a little bird told me". The expression is used as a light-hearted and polite way to say you don't wish to reveal your source of information, perhaps because the source wishes to remain anonymous or unnamed. The origin of the phrase lies in the Bible, the book of Ecclesiastes 10:20: "Curse not the king, no, not in thy thought: and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter" (KJV). Brian Melbancke's "Philotimus", published in 1583, makes use of a phrase similar to the contemporary one: "I had a little bird, that brought me newes of it".

From Quiz Heavens to Betsy! More Cliches!

Answer: He or she has been given a forewarning of something unfortunate soon to occur.

To see the "hand writing on the wall" is to receive a portent or forewarning, usually of something ominous. The source of this expression is the Old Testament book of Daniel. Belshazzar decides to hold a feast when he becomes king of Babylon. "In the same hour [of the feast] came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote" (Daniel 5:5 KJV). The prophet Daniel is called in to interpret the message, and tells Belshazzar that it means God has numbered the days of his kingdom and it will be divided between the Medes and the Persians. By the way, this expression has sometimes been corrupted to "the handwriting on the wall", but one can easily see from the original story in Daniel that a literal hand is seen.

From Quiz Easy as Pie Cliches

Answer: The early bird

The person who gets up, arrives, or starts an action first has a better chance than others of achieving an objective or of taking an advantage of an opportunity. The expression "the early bird catches the worm" appears at least as early as 1636 in William Camden's "Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine".

From Quiz What's the Cat's Meow? Cliches, That's What!

Answer: decided to pursue a particular male for a mate

"To set her cap for him" means a woman is seeking to turn a male acquaintance or a man she has only recently seen into a suitor. English women at one time almost always wore some sort of hat or headdress--even when indoors. If she put on a particularly fancy or extravagant one, particularly when a man was present, most would assume that she was deliberately attempting to get that man's attention. One can find a reference to this expression as early as 1773 in Oliver Goldsmith's play "She Stoops to Conquer": "Instead of breaking my heart at his indifference, I'll . . . set my cap to some newer fashion, and look out for some less difficult admirer".

From Quiz The Black Sheep of Cliches

Answer: an old method of dividing land among the heirs of an estate

According to "Coke in Littleton", a 1620 text on English law, land was divided among the heirs of an estate from a procedure that involved balls of wax. The executor of a will would write out descriptions of parcels of land on pieces of paper, roll the pieces of paper into balls, cover the balls of paper with wax so that no one could tamper with them, and then put these balls into a hat. The eldest heir would then draw a ball from the hat and receive the parcel of land described on his or her piece of paper. The next eldest would then draw and so on down the line of inheritors. Most believe this practice to be the source of the expression "a whole new ball of wax".

From Quiz A-1 Cliches

Answer: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

"A-OK" is definitely a space-age expression. Most sources give John A. "Shorty" Powers, a United States Air Force Lt. Colonel and spokesperson for NASA, the credit for introducing America to the term. He first used it to explain that everything was going perfectly with Alan Shepard's "Freedom 7" Mercury mission in 1961. However, Powers himself gave astronaut Alan Shepard credit for coining the expression. Alternatively, Tom Wolfe in his novel "The Right Stuff" explained that the expression was created by engineers at NASA who found that saying "A" in front of "OK" was easier to hear through the static of radio transmissions.

From Quiz The Very Thing You Need--More Cliches!

Answer: He releases his anger, often by expressing it toward someone who's not the real source of that anger.

"To vent one's spleen" is to "air" one's anger or frustration, to release it. The spleen is an abdominal organ considered to be primarily a part of the immune system. Its function is to filter the blood and to store platelets and white blood cells. However, in days of old, before people understood human anatomy, many believed human organs to be the storehouses and sources of various emotions. The spleen was believed to be the seat of several morose feelings, but it eventually was associated with one's temper, as is obvious from the expression. "To vent" means to "air something out" or "to let something out of an enclosed space". "To vent one's spleen" was considered a literal action at one time--the letting out of bad air or whatever ill substance was being held in the spleen. One of the earliest written accounts of the cliche is from George Rawlinson's "Egypt and Babylon" published in 1885: "This time he . . . vented his spleen on Jews by renewed attacks and oppressions".

From Quiz Ups-A-Daisy! It's More Cliches!

Answer: under the counter

Something sold "under the counter" is something sold surreptitiously. The expression refers to making a transaction or trade secretly because the parties involved in the exchange know that their actions would be considered unethical or illegal. This idiom arose during World War II when several shopkeepers kept items hidden under the counter to sell to friends or loyal customers when so many things were being rationed or were in short supply. Hiding the items literally under the counter kept the products out of sight but in reach for a very quick exchange.

From Quiz Speak of the Devil! It's More Cliches!

Answer: the Bible

Someone who is the "salt of the earth" is someone on whom you can most certainly rely. Despite salt having a few negative associations, such as in the expression "pour salt in one's wounds", the mineral has been essential to humans' survival. People have historically relied on salt for the preservation of food, so much so that Roman soldiers were paid based on what they needed to purchase salt--thus, the word "salary". However, the origin of the phrase goes back further than the Romans. The book of Matthew from the Bible's New Testament records Jesus saying, "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt hath lost his savour wherewith shall it be salted?" (KJV).

From Quiz Prick up Your Ears! It's More Cliches!

Answer: He had grown tired.

"To peter out" means "gradually, to give out, grow exhausted, fade away, or fail". The use of the word "peter" as a verb and the use of this expression "peter out" seem to have begun in the early to middle nineteenth century in the United States, and most believe that its origin lies in the mining occupation. In an 1845 Wisconsin newspaper, the "Milwaukee Daily Gazette", someone wrote: "When my mineral petered why they all Petered me. Now it is dig, dig, dig, drill, drill for nothing. My luck is clean gone - tapered down to nothing". Then in 1854, H. H. Riley wrote in "Puddleford and Its People": He hoped this 'spectacle meeting warn't going to Peter-out'". The origin is not really known, but many speculate that, as the word "Peter" was typically capitalized early on, the origin most likely has something to do with an individual named Peter. Some argue that the Peter being referenced is the disciple Peter from the New Testament of the Bible. Charles E. Funk holds with this theory and explains that during the scene at the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is arrested after Judas's betrayal, Peter at first is determined to defend Jesus at any cost as he grabs a sword and attacks a soldier. However, within a few hours all of his fervor and determination had dwindled to the extent that he denies even knowing Jesus on three different occasions. Finally, some argue that the origin of "peter out" has to do with the use of saltpetre as gun powder, which miners used as an explosive in their work. The argument is that fuses would sometimes fail because of diminishing saltpetre or some other fault with the substance. People capitalized "peter" in the expression "Petered out" because they erroneously assumed the word was referring to someone's name.

From Quiz Jump on the Bandwagon with Cliches

Answer: just deserts

Most people have little problem with the "just" part of the expression, for they understand that the phrase is referring to justice occurring when someone receives what he or she deserves or when someone finally gets what's coming to him or her. On the other hand, many people misspell the "deserts" part, and for good reason. We are taught that "desert" refers to a tremendous area of land that receives little precipitation whereas "dessert" refers to a sweet food item one eats, in American culture, after a meal. However, the word "desert", in the case of the expression, is a noun form of the word "deserve" and means "that which is deserved". Of course, this word is rarely used in this manner today except in the popular cliche. The earliest recording of "just deserts" is in the 1599 publication "Warnings Faire Women": "Upon a pillory--that al the world may see, / A just desert for such impiety".

From Quiz Get on the Gravy Train with Cliches!

Answer: the sack

To be fired or dismissed from one's job is to "get the sack" (or "get the bag" in older versions of the expression). Roving workmen carried their tools in a sack or bag, and when the work ended or a workman was dismissed, the worker picked up his sack or was handed his sack by the employer, and he moved on. Originally, to "get the sack" was not necessarily a negative thing; it just meant that the job was finished and the employer had no more need of the workman. One of the earliest written recordings of the expression occurs in a 1576 publication entitled "Common Conditions".

From Quiz Can You Pass This Cliche Quiz with Flying Colors?

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".

From Quiz Easy as Pie Cliches

Answer: crow

Obviously crow would not be a popular dish; in fact, eating crow has often been considered forbidden and illegal at different times, dating all the way back to at least the composition of the book of Leviticus, Chapter 11. Thus, if someone was going to do something that would symbolically represent his or her willingnesss to abase him or herself or take the blame for some mistake or blunder, "eating crow" would certainly show one's humility. The expression may come from a couple of stories published in America around 1850, one in the "Knickerbocker" and the other in the "Saturday Evening Post". According to the stories, an old farmer is boarding a few travelers who complain about the food. The farmer boldly states, "I kin eat anything," at which the boarders respond, "How about crow?" The farmer replies, "I kin eat crow!" The boarders challenge him to eat one and prepare the crow themselves while stuffing it full of tobacco. The farmer eats the crow but then replies, "I kin eat crow, but I be darned if I hanker after it." However, the Atlanta "Constitution" relates the following event that occurred during the War of 1812. An American soldier bagged a crow while hunting. A British officer who witnessed the deed approached the American and complimented him on his shot. He then asked to see the American's gun. Upon receiving it, the officer pointed it at the American, upbraided him for trespassing and firing a weapon during a ceasefire, and then made him eat a bite of the crow. After all of this, the British officer foolishly returned the gun to the American, who then humiliated the officer by forcing him to eat the remainder of the crow at gunpoint.

From Quiz The Black Sheep of Cliches

Answer: baptism of fire

"Baptism of fire" or sometimes "baptism by fire" is an expression mostly used to refer to a soldier's introduction to battle and is a translation of the French phrase "bapteme du feu". The "fire" may refer to the discharging of missile weapons or it may be the metaphorical reference to a literal burning fire or conflagration. However, the phrase has been used to mean any severe or traumatic experience that would alter one's perspective and test one's endurance or loyalty. The "baptism by fire" expression is more often used to refer to the Christian understanding of spiritual sanctification that may occur due to facing a severe or testing ordeal.

From Quiz From An Apple A Day to Zip It, It's Idioms A-Z

Answer: Bush

This phrase is derived from the 1500's when hunters hired beaters to drive small animals out of bushes. The beaters did not want to drive the animals out of the bush into the open before the hunters arrived, so they used a long stick to use around the bush.

From Quiz Zoinks! One Last Cliche Quiz to Zip Through!

Answer: a runaway horse

"Zeal without knowledge is a runaway horse" is a metaphorical manner of suggesting that people with great energy and enthusiasm for the accomplishment of a particular goal are a danger to those around them if they have little or no knowledge of the situations in which they are attempting to act. One can easily picture a runaway horse galloping at great speed and kicking up its heels; such a horse is likely not to pay much attention to its surroundings or the direction in which it is running. The origin of this expression is not really known though Thomas Fuller, the seventeenth-century English preacher and historian is credited with another variation: "Zeal without knowledge is a fire without light".

From Quiz The Very Thing You Need--More Cliches!

Answer: a vicious circle

A "vicious circle" is a disagreeable situation but, to make matters worse, is one that keeps repeating itself. A person is trapped in a cycle so that as he or she attempts to improve his or her situation, he or she is only able to continue in that same situation or is led to another negative or worse situation. Th origin of the metaphorical image and expression lies with the study of logic. To attempt to prove a claim by returning to some form of that claim as one's evidence is considered a fallacious method of arguing, and this act is called "circular reasoning" or "a vicious circle". One might picture a snake in the shape of a hoop while it is swallowing its own tail. An example of this logical fallacy is something like this: "The boy is lonely because he feels alone". Eventually, the expression began to be used in a much wider and figurative sense. Those in the medical profession began to use "a vicious circle" to refer to the ill health of an individual who experiences one symptom that leads to another so that the individual's health steadily deteriorated. However, many others soon began to use the expression for any steadily deteriorating cycle someone could not escape. The 1792 edition of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" contained the following statement: "He runs into what is termed by logicians a 'vicous circle' (failure to make connection between premise and conclusion)". One hundred years later, Henry James wrote in his "Notebooks", "The whole situation works in a kind of inevitable rotary way--in what would be called a vicious circle".

From Quiz Speak of the Devil! It's More Cliches!

Answer: a stalking horse

A "stalking horse" refers to a front for some scheme or maneuver one has planned; it is a means of causing an opponent to reveal his or her strong points or strategy. The origin of the phrase lies in the act of hunting when the hunters used horses. Occasionally, a hunter on horseback would, when approaching the game, get off his horse and, using the horse as a blind, stalk step by step until he got within shooting distance of the game. From the game's point of view, or anyone else who happened to be looking on, the horse appeared to be stalking something, not the hunter hidden behind the horse. Using a stalking horse must have been a practice in use long before Shakespeare because the playwright uses the phrase in its figurative sense in "As You Like It". The Duke and Jaques are having a conversation about the clown Touchstone when Jaques says, "Is not this a rare fellow, my lord? he's as good at anything and yet a fool". The Duke replies, "He uses his folly like a stalking-horse and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit".

From Quiz Run of the Mill Cliches

Answer: Long, slender feathers along a rooster's neck or back

Hackles are the erectile feathers that line the backs of birds' necks as well as the birds' backs, particularly those of male birds. These feathers stand more erect when certain birds feel threatened. The image of an angry rooster, a very common domestic fowl, is often what comes to most people's minds as they thinking of raised hackles. On the other hand, birds are not the only animals to have hackles. For instance, the hairs on the back of a dog's neck also stand up when this animal feels frightened or alarmed or perhaps even excitement during a hunt. One of the earliest written examples of this cliche occurs in Edward Pennell's "Elmhirst--The Cream of Leicestershire", which was published in 1883: "I almost saw the hackles of a good old squire rise . . . ".

From Quiz Nothing New under the Sun--Just More Cliches

Answer: a counterfeit coin

The rap in the phrase "not worth a rap" refers to essentially a counterfeit coin that fraudulently circulated in Ireland as a halfpenny during the 1700s. The rap succeeded for a while as acceptable currency as real money was scarce. The expressions "without a rap" and "don't care a rap" also came into frequent use during the same time period.

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