The Dog's Breakfast Trivia Quiz

Answer: It's a hopelessly confused mess.

"The dog's breakfast" is a phrase that means something (like your science experiment) or some situation (like your party planning) has turned into a hopeless muddle. No one knows how this colorful expression came to mean what it does, or just when and where it started. Like many people, Uncle Charlie likes to use such 'turns of phrase' or 'figures of speech' to give his conversation more zest.

Answer: the cat

If you have a cat, you know she sometimes drags around all sorts of things, some of them not very nice, and a lot of them definitely the worse for wear. Uncle Charlie might look up from his newspaper and say in a kind but teasing voice, "Look what the cat dragged in," if you trail in late for breakfast, bleary-eyed and yawning.

It's his way of saying he has noticed you're not at your best.

Answer: Bats in your belfry

A belfry is the space at the top of a bell tower where the bells hang and where the people work whose job it is to pull the ropes and make the bells ring. Apart from the ringers, few people go up to the belfry, so most of the time it's a quiet place where bats can sleep undisturbed.

To say someone has bats in the belfry, though, is to say the person is a little crazy. You might be going crazy from nerves, but that's not the main point. Uncle Charlie has noticed that you are nervous, jumpy and maybe just a little too focused on the upcoming event. 'Butterflies in your stomach' means you've got a case of nerves. 'Ants in your pants' means you can't sit still, while 'a bee in your bonnet' means you have a fixed idea and are a bit impatient too.

Answer: True

Have you ever heard a tall person called Long Shanks? That means he (it is usually a he) has long legs. If you go by shanks' pony or shanks' mare, you let your legs carry you. In other words, you walk.

Another old expression meaning to walk that I've come across is to go by shoe cart. You might update it and say you're going by shoe express or sneaker express. That sounds a lot more exciting than saying you're going to walk, don't you think?

Answer: She's going to be angry.

To have kittens means to be very worried, upset, or angry about something. Other expressions you could use that mean the same thing are to have a cow or to have a [hairy] canary.

Answer: Hen of the walk

Hens don't have teeth. So, if something is scarcer than hens' teeth, it's pretty darn hard to come by. A hen will cluck and make rather a fuss when she has laid an egg. So, if you're acting like a hen with an egg, you're mighty pleased with yourself. Hens don't like getting wet. So, if you're madder than a wet hen, you're quite mad.

On the other hand, we don't speak of the hen of the walk but rather of the cock of the walk. If Uncle Charlie calls you this, he means you are strutting about like a rooster. Other words for 'rooster' are 'cock' and cockerel'.

Answer: An eager beaver

As these things go, "eager beaver" is a recently coined expression. It was first recorded in Canada in 1943. If you're an eager beaver, you are zealous and industrious, just like the hard working beaver, which is the national animal of Canada. More recently, the term has evolved to mean something more like 'impatient'.

Answer: Drink

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink", meaning you can give somebody a chance but you can't force him or her to take it, dates back to the Sixteenth Century.

Answer: Swallow

This rather lovely, and wise expression has been around in one form or another since the Greek philosopher Aristotle (who lived from 384 to 322 BC) used it in a book known as "The Nicomachean Ethics".

Answer: A rat

There have been times, and there are still places, in which rats have been serious pests. One big problem is that they (and the fleas that often live on them) can carry disease. Some dogs, like terriers, are good at sniffing out rats. So, if your dog was sniffing around, you would think that maybe he smelled a rat.

In time, this idea came to be applied to people who were suspicious of other people, had a bad feeling about a situation and the like.