Can You Pass This Cliche Quiz with Flying Colors?

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."

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".

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.

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.

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".

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.'"

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".

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.

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."

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.