birds of a feather

Individuals of similar taste, background, or other characteristics in common. The term is a shortening of the proverb, “Birds of a feather flock together,” an observation made more than two thousand years ago by Ben Sira in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus. The senti- ment was transferred to human beings and repeated by numerous English writers from Shakespeare’s time on.
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bird’s-eye view, a

An overall view, the large picture. The term dates from about 1600 and not only means “panoramic” but also may imply a somewhat superficial picture. Thus a “bird’s-eye view” of music history, for example, may try to cover five hundred years of musical composition in a one-semester course. A 1989 New York Times headline, “Human-Eye View,” announcing a special tour of a natural history museum’s ornithology collec- tion, gave this cliché a new twist.
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bird in the hand, a

What one already has is better than what one might possibly get. The complete saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,” is an ancient Greek proverb, quoted in several of Aesop’s fables. It was repeated by the Romans and appeared in English in the fifteenth cen- tury. There are numerous versions in other languages. See also POSSESSION IS NINE POINTS OF THE LAW.
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cliff-hanger

A situation whose outcome is in extremely suspenseful doubt until the last moment. The term comes from serialized adventure films popular in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, in which, at the end of each installment, the hero or heroine is left in a very dangerous situation, sometimes literally dangling from a cliff. The rationale, of course, was to entice the audience to return for the next installment in order to see what happened. By the 1940s the term was being transferred to other sus- penseful states of affairs—for example, “the election was a cliff-hanger.”
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clear the decks, to


To  prepare  for  action. This  term  comes  from  naval warfare. In the times of wooden sailing ships, a crew prepared for battle by fastening down or removing all loose objects on the decks, lest they get in the  way  or  cause  an  injury. By  the  eighteenth  century  the  term  was  being used  to  mean  getting  ready  for  any  major  undertaking  by  getting  small details out of the way. See also BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES.
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clear the air, to

To remove confusion or controversy. The analogy to stormy weather was made as long ago as the fourteenth century, although at first the term meant to free something from clouds or other obscuring ele- ments. In time it came to mean getting rid of the sultry oppressiveness com- mon before a storm, which then was transferred to the removal of misunderstanding or ambiguity. Thus a British reporter wrote, “His explicit . . . reply to Parnell’s speech . . . cleared the air” (Manchester Examiner, 1885).
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clear conscience, to have a

To feel free from blame, obligation, or a similar burden because one is guiltless (or so believes). The sixteenth- century writer John Lyly used the term several times in his Euphues (1580)—“a cleere conscience is a sure card”—and the same phrase turned up in James Howell’s proverb collection of 1659. Nearly a century later Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Keep Conscience clear, then never fear” (Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1749).
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clear as mud

Murky, obscure, anything but clear. This jocular cliché, spo- ken ironically to indicate that something is unclear, dates from the early nineteenth century. It appears in R. H. Barham’s Ingoldsby Legends (1842) and is still frequently heard.
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clear as a bell

Describing a tone free from harshness, rasping, or hoarse- ness, pure as the sound of a bell. The simile was already current in the seven- teenth century; it appeared in John Ray’s proverb collection of 1670. Today it is often used figuratively to describe something that is readily understood. See also LOUD AND CLEAR.
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clean sweep, (make) a

Get rid of anything or anyone old, extraneous, unwanted. The term often refers to new officeholders who are extremely zealous about making a completely new start. It probably came from the much older locution, “New broom sweeps clean,” quoted in John Heywood’s proverb collection of 1546 and repeated often over the years, but now virtu- ally obsolete.
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clean slate, have a/start with a

A fresh chance after past debts or offenses have been canceled or forgiven. A nineteenth-century term, it comes from the schoolroom and tavern, where slate blackboards and chalk were used for exercises and totting up bills (see also CHALK IT UP TO). Mis- takes and debts so recorded could literally be erased. It may have been a translation of the earlier Latin tabula rasa (“scraped tablet”), on which any- thing could be inscribed. By the second half of the nineteenth century the term was transferred to mean making any kind of fresh start. Another ver- sion of the term is to wipe the slate clean (so as to obtain a clean slate). As Rudyard Kipling wrote about The Absent-Minded Beggar (1900), “He’s out on active service, wiping something off a slate.”
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cleanliness is next to godliness


Physical  cleanliness  betokens  spiritual purity. The idea is an ancient one, found in both Babylonian and Hebrew reli- gious tracts. The precise phrase first appears in a sermon by John Wesley in
1778, which puts it in quotation marks but does not reveal the source. It is much  quoted  thereafter,  by  Dickens  and  Shaw  (“Cleanliness  which  comes next to godliness, if not before it, Man and Superman, 1903), among others.
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clean bill of health, to have a/be given a

To have passed a rigorous inspection. The term comes from the nineteenth-century practice of issuing an actual bill of health, a document signed by the authorities and given to the ship’s master, stating that no infectious diseases existed in the port of embarkation. If there was some kind of epidemic, the ship received a foul bill of health. Before long the term was transferred to the assurance that an indi- vidual or group or organization was found, after investigation, to be morally sound.
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clean as a whistle

Thoroughly or neatly done; also, pure, unsoiled. The early-nineteenth-century use of this term, which appears in William Carr’s The Dialect of Craven (1828) as a proverbial simile meaning “wholly” or “entirely,” was in such guise as “Head taken off as clean as a whistle” (W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, 1849). Why this should be analogous to a whistle is not cer- tain. In the eighteenth century the simile was “clear as a whistle,” presumably referring to the pure sound produced by a whistle, relatively free of over- tones. From “clear” and “pure” to “clean” is not so very far. Another theory holds that “whistle” came from “whittle”—that is, clean as wood is after being whittled—but this analogy seems less likely.
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clean as a hound’s tooth

Spotlessly clean. This proverbial simile, current from about 1900, is as puzzling as one of its fifteenth-century antecedents, “clene as a byrdes ars.” The teeth of hounds are no cleaner than those of other carnivores, but therein may lie the source of the saying, that is, “clean” here may first have meant “sharp.” By the 1950s, however, when it was being applied to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, it meant clean in a more conventional figurative sense, that is, free of corruption.
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claim to fame, one’s

A characteristic for which a person or thing is par- ticularly noted. For example, describing a bridge player who won several big titles, Alan Truscott wrote, “He had three other claims to fame. His friends knew him as an extraordinary raconteur, and . . . he was addicted to opening the bidding in a three-card major suit and perpetrated outrageous psychic bids” (New York Times, April 13, 2000). This twentieth-century cliché undoubtedly owes its popularity to its rhyme.
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city slicker

A smart, sophisticated urbanite. This American colloquialism, dating from the 1920s, is presumably taken from the adjective “slick” in the sense of smooth and plausible. The cliché gained renewed currency with two motion pictures, City Slickers (1991) and its 1994 sequel. The first film, which won Jack Palance an Oscar for best supporting actor, concerns three city-dwelling friends who sign up for a two-week cattle drive.
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Christmas comes but once a year

Take this opportunity to enjoy your- self to the fullest. This seemingly modern cliché actually dates from the six- teenth century, when Thomas Tusser included it as one of his Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1573): “At Christmas play and make good cheere, for Christmas comes but once a yeere.”
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choice between (of) two evils, a

Two unpleasant alternatives. The full expression, “choose the lesser of two evils,” was already a proverb listed by John Heywood in 1546 and dates, in slightly different form, from Plato’s and Aristotle’s times. “Of harmes two, the lesse is for to chese,” wrote Chaucer in Troilus and Criseyde. Since it is not always possible to decide between two such alternatives, C. H. Spurgeon may offer the best advice: “Of two evils, choose neither” (John Ploughman’s Talk, 1880).
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chips are down, the

The situation is urgent or desperate, or both. The term comes from poker, where the chips represent money being wagered. When all the bets are in, the hand is over and the cards must be turned faceup to determine who has the winning hand. From the same source come two other clichés, to cash in one’s chips, meaning to die, since turning in one’s chips for money signifies the end of the game; and in the chips, meaning to be rich, that is, having very many chips. All these expressions date from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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chip on one’s shoulder, to have a

To be quarrelsome; to carry a griev- ance. This turn of phrase originated in nineteenth-century America, when, according to an article in Harper’s Magazine (1857), placing a chip on a man’s shoulder and daring someone to knock it off was a provocation to fight.
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chip off the old block, a

An individual who closely resembles a parent in abilities, behavior, or appearance, most often a son resembling his father. The analogy is to wood—that is, a chip consists of the same wood as the block from which it came—and dates back to ancient Greek times. Theocri- tus called it a chip-of-the-old-flint (Idyls, c. 270 B.C.). The wood analogy appeared in several writings of the seventeenth century, although usually as a chip of the old block (Robert Sanderson, William Rowley, John Milton, and others), and John Ray’s 1670 proverb collection had it, “Kit after kind. A chip of the old block.”
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chink in one’s armor, a

A vulnerable spot, a weakness. The term alludes to the medieval knight’s armor made of mail—interlinked rings of metal jointed at various points. When a crack, or chink, developed between the links or joints, he was less protected against a spear or arrow. The noun “chink” has been used figuratively for such a fissure since the 1600s, and the current term came soon afterward. See also ACHILLES’ HEEL.
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Chinese fire drill

A state of utter confusion. This cliché dates from about 1940 and today is considered quite offensive, disparaging the Chinese as dis- organized. Nevertheless, it has not yet died out.
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Chinaman’s chance, he hasn’t a/not a


No chance whatever. The term date fro th latte hal o th nineteent century whe Chinese immigrants  came  to  California  to  help  build  railroads. Their  presence  was sharply  opposed  because  they  would  work  for  far  less  than  white  workers.
We  are  ruined  by  cheap  labor, wrote  Bret  Harte  in  his  poem “Plain  Lan- guage from Truthful James. According to some authorities, the term applied
to those Chinese who tried to supplement their earnings by working claims and  streams  abandoned  by  gold  prospectors, a  virtually  hopeless  undertak- ing. Others, poet John Ciardi among them, believe it derives from the way they were regarded as virtually subhuman and had no legal recourse if, for example,  the were   robbed,  attacked,  o otherwis abused.  I largely replaced the older not a dogs chance, at least in America, but is now consid- ered offensive. Also see FAT CHANCE; SNOWBALLS CHANCE.
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chill out

Take it easy, calm down. This slangy imperative is relatively new, dating only from about 1980, but has caught on enough to approach cliché status. It alludes to being “cool,” that is, clever and laid back.
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big-ticket item, a

An expensive purchase; a large outlay. Ticket refers either to the price tag or to the banking term meaning a preliminary record of a transaction before it is posted in a permanent book of account. The term originated in the United States about 1940 and is a borderline cliché.
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big picture, the

See THE  BIG  PICTURE.
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bigger they come

See THE  BIGGER THEY  COME.
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bigger bang for the buck

More for one’s money. The term was invented in 1954 by U.S. defense secretary Charles E. Wilson, who was advocating bet- ter use of defense appropriations, relying principally on nuclear deterrents; “bang” refers to a nuclear explosion. Later it was extended to numerous civil- ian contexts calling for better value. It echoes an older advertising slogan for a soft drink, “More bounce to the ounce.”
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big fish in a small pond

An individual who is important or prominent only in a small group. This cliché, of American provenance, is used both dis- paragingly (“He’s the firm’s general counsel, but since there are only three employees he’s just a big fish in a small pond”) and more positively (“She didn’t get accepted to the university, but it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond”).
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big deal


An important matter; also, so what, who cares. The differentia- tion between these two phrases depends on the speakers tone. An example of the first sense might be, A first helicopter ride for a five-year-old is a big deal. The  second  sense  appears  in,  “So  she  got  her  first  choice  of  col- leges—well, big  deal! This  sense  can  also  be  conveyed  by  no  big  deal. All three usages date from about 1940.
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big cheese, the

The  boss,  an  important  person;  also,  a  self-important person. This term is a slangy Americanism dating from the late nineteenth century, and its etymology is disputed. Some believe it comes from the Per- sian or Urdu word chiz or cheez for “thing”; others believe it is simply a play on the English word chief. There are several synonymous usages, among them big gun, big shot, and big wheel. The first dates from the 1830s. An 1834 citation has  it, “The  big  guns  of  the  nation  are  there  [in Washington]. The  last  two expressions both date from the 1930s.
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big as a house


Physically large, overweight, said of a person in an unflat- tering  way, as  in I  saw  Marion  the  other  day  and  shes  gotten  as  big  as  a house. Why a house should have been chosen as a simile for a large person
is not clear, but it has been so used for a very long time.
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bide one’s time, to


To wait for the right moment to speak or take action. The verb to bide, meaning “to wait for” since about the year 950, survives today only in this cliché. Frederick W. Robertson used the expression in a sermon
(1853): “They bide their time and suddenly represent themselves.
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bid adieu Say good-bye.


This  formulaic  farewell  uses  the  French  adieu, meaning “to God, and has done so since Chaucers time. It is now considered rather formal, although it also is used humorously. In fact, humorist Charles Farrar  Browne, under  the  pen  name Artemus Ward, joked  about  it  back  in
1862: I now bid you a welcome adoo (ArtemusWard: His Book.The Shakers).
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beyond the pale

Unacceptable, outside the rules of society, morality, etc. The noun “pale,” from the Latin palum, meant a stake of the kind used to make fences, or a fence made of such stakes. By extension it came to mean the limits designated by a fence, at first literally and then figuratively. In the fourteenth century the English Pale was a name given to the part of Ireland then under English rule and therefore within the bounds of civilization (as perceived by the English). There was a similar pale around Calais. More fig- uratively still, the English printer William Caxton wrote in 1483, “The abbot and 21 monks went for to dwelle in deserte for to kepe more strayte- lye the profession of theyr pale.” Three centuries later and three thousand miles away, Thomas Jefferson referred to “within the pale of their own laws.”
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betwixt and between


Neithe her no there,  unresolved;  halfway between  two  alternatives.  Betwixt  comes  from  Old  English  and  originally meant by two”; now considered archaic, it survives largely in this expres- sion, which dates from the nineteenth century. An 1877 play by Besant and Rice  (Son  of Vulcan,  1.4)  has  it, “Shes  the  fool  and  hes  the  knave,  so  its betwix and between.
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