Figurative Language (you can bet your bootie)

[tree]

Nose out of shape, I have never heard.
Nose pushed out, I have never heard.
Nose out of joint---that I have heard.

If your nose is out of joint, it is probably
broken. So you will be unhappy about that.

You will be in a state of dis-satisfaction
when your nose is out of joint. You are
not pleased with the situation.

 

[hoeffelt]

Ha! Me too! Until my therapy session today, I was under the impression that everyone had the image of the expression in their heads. I thought that NTs would understand the meaning, but still picture it in their head. I asked if she doesn't picture cats and dogs literally raining out and she said no. That would explain why the expression to keep your eyes peeled is something that makes me cringe

Take a look at this video i found id think of all of them in this same way.

 

[hoeffelt]

Nose out of shape, I have never heard.
Nose pushed out, I have never heard.
Nose out of joint---that I have heard.

If your nose is out of joint, it is probably
broken. So you will be unhappy about that.

You will be in a state of dis-satisfaction
when your nose is out of joint. You are
not pleased with the situation.

Never heard any of those.

 

[Astroganga]

I've usually heard the first one expressed at "Getting the sh*tty end of the stick," which is obviously the least favourable end to have. I've heard the other one expressed as "having one's nose put out of shape" but I haven't got a clue what it means.

Well the first one I was imagining an actual physical stick that existed somewhere. The second one is maybe a Northern thing but means when a person is excluded, or feels excluded from something. When I was little, family members were speaking about my uncle feeling excluded as he was years younger than his siblings, so they said he had his nose pushed out. I said 'pop' as I thought he literally had his nose pushed out and that was the sound I imagined it making.

 

[LittleLemon]

Take a look at this video i found id think of all of them in this same way.

Love this! I laughed at myself for "barking up the wrong tree." I never thought of a dog. I thought of someone applying bark to the wrong tree. Yeah...not it at all!

 

[tree]

So many of these sayings refer to
situations which are easy to understand
if you have experienced them.

Like barking up the wrong tree.
Coon hunting, for instance.
If the dogs were mistaken and were
all camped around a tree, woofing,
but there's no coon in that tree.

Or a stitch in time saves nine is
relevant if a person has grown up
seeing mom or grandma patching/
stitching their clothing.

Even "till the cows come home" is
easy to grasp, if you've been around
cattle that have been trained to expect
food & milking at a certain time.
===============
"to beat the band"
To understand this one, though,
I had to look it up.

http://www.word-detective.com/2010/09/beat-the-band/

 

[Mia]

"to beat the band"
To understand this one, though,
I had to look it up.

Both parents used that term, saying things such as 'She was smiling to beat the band, he was running to beat the band, they were dancing to beat the band. I understood it in the context that they used it, but not the other uses, interesting Tree.

 

[LittleLemon]

Thank you, tree for all the explanations!

Does someone want to have a go at "circling the wagon?" I'm obsessed with the Duggar family and there's a particular forum I like to read. After a scandal they had with their son, several people would say, "they're all circling the wagon now." Huh?

 

[toothless]

ive still dont understand any sayings,even when people have explained them to me i still dont get them-i cant get over them.

my mum has always come out with them practically every time she speaks- she has always confused me, eg two shakes of a lambs tail,as rough as a dogs hind leg, as hard as a hobs of gibraltar,you have to rob peter to pay paul,s**t and sugar etc.

 

[Nitro]

Thank you, tree for all the explanations!

Does someone want to have a go at "circling the wagon?" I'm obsessed with the Duggar family and there's a particular forum I like to read. After a scandal they had with their son, several people would say, "they're all circling the wagon now." Huh?

The settlers in the United States traveled west in wagon trains so that they could help each other and would form circles with their wagon trains in order to defend themselves from native Americans who would attack them for taking what land they considered to belong to all that lived and did not go by a standard that anyone was entitled to ownership of any of it.

http://amothersapron.blogspot.com/2011/03/circling-wagons.html

 

[Judge]

After a scandal they had with their son, several people would say, "they're all circling the wagon now." Huh?

A metaphor for closing ranks.

"When the members of a group or organization close ranks, they make an effort to stay united, especially in order to defend themselves from severe criticism: In the past, the party would have closed ranks around its leader and defended him loyally."

 

[Guppyfry]

Reading this thread just made my brain explode: You man NT's don't picture in their brain the action mentioned in the expression? Even if I understand the meaning of an expression or metaphor, I still have mental pictures of Cats and Dogs raining from the sky, babies being thrown out the window with the bath water, people living in glass houses and breaking their walls by throwing rocks, etc . . . How could you not?

 

[Mia]

My aspie brother in law often said as he left to return to his home; "Don't take any wooden nickles." Everyone in my husband's family thought this was funny. I could never understand why.

I understood that the term meant not to be taken advantage of by anyone. He may have heard it as a child when WC Fields or the Marx Brothers used it in their comedy routines in movies.

In a metal can filled with wooden checker pieces, I found a wooden nickel advertising a world's fair. As my brother in law was leaving to return to his city, he was about to quote the phrase, I said 'here' and handed the wooden token to him, he looked at it realized what it was and laughed for several minutes. For some reason he's not used the phrase since.

 

[Judge]

I remember the first time I ever heard someone say they're "Three sheets to the wind". Took me a while to get used to it...although it seems I seldom hear it.

Our well...our language has many slang terms for being drunk.

 

[Vinca]

I remember the first time I ever heard someone say they're "Three sheets to the wind". Took me a while to get used to it...although it seems I seldom hear it.

Our well...our language has many slang terms for being drunk.

I did not know that being "three sheets to the wind" meant being drunk!

That's both interesting and useful to know.

I just thought it meant someone was not really 'with it'/not paying attention and have probably used it, incorrectly, that way.

 

[Mia]

"Three sheets to the wind".

My Father often used that term Judge, visually I thought it had something to do with sailing ships as he had been in the navy and it may be navy slang.

And I just looked it up:

A backfilled jib is normally a bad thing. But in a major storm when a ship is “hove to,” the helm is lashed to windward, and the jib(s) are sheeted to the windward side of the ship (sheeted to the wind) causing the ship to sit sideways to the wind and waves to minimize the distance the ship is blown off course during a storm. While hove to the ship is at the mercy of the wind and the crew has no control of the ship.
As the storm gets stronger, more force is required to hold the ship in position and additional jibs are sheeted to the wind to keep the ship balanced. A ship that has three jibs sheeted to the wind would be sitting sideways to the wind and waves in hurricane conditions, causing it roll wildly from side to side and in constant danger of rolling over with each wave.
Hence, a totally inebriated person is out of control and in danger of crashing, just like a ship three sheets to the wind.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/three_sheets_to_the_wind

 

[hoeffelt]

Ha! Me too! Until my therapy session today, I was under the impression that everyone had the image of the expression in their heads. I thought that NTs would understand the meaning, but still picture it in their head. I asked if she doesn't picture cats and dogs literally raining out and she said no. That would explain why the expression to keep your eyes peeled is something that makes me cringe

Keeping your eyes peelef seems sort of like maybe your eye lids are like an orange peel and ur trying to get the peel off so ur like holding ur eyes open. idk thats my best way to reason it that goes with the meaning as far as the other one with cutting of the nose i have no clue......

 

[Mia]

History
The exact idiom did not appear in print until the 1700’s. However, the idea of causing yourself more harm than your enemy goes back as far as a Latin proverb in the year 1200. Male ulciscitur dedecus sibi illatum, qui amputat nasum suum. He who cuts off his nose takes poor revenge for a shame inflicted on him.

"Cut off your nose to spite your face"
The idiom to cut off your nose to spite your face means you shouldn’t do something out of spite or revenge that will end up causing more harm to you than to the person with which you are angry. In other words, do not let your overreaction lead to self-harm.

Still don't understand how it follows, think it's be a poorly thought out idiom.

 

[Mia]

It's a piece of cake! When something is easy to do. Still makes no sense to me.

Dead as a doornail. What the heck? When something is dead or unusable.

 

[the_tortoise]

I didn't understand "People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" for a very long time.....actually I still don't think I get it.

Someone explained to me that it referred to throwing stones inside of your house, and breaking the glass, but I don't understand how/when you'd use it.

I think it's probably like "Don't rock the boat" (because it will tip over) but involves being hypocritical in the case of the glass houses....?