See GRASP AT STRAWS.
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clothes make the man
Outer appearances are very important. The thought appears in ancient Babylonian writings, and Erasmus’s collection of adages (1523) refers to the fact that the statement “Clothes are the man” appeared in Homer and numerous ancient Latin sources. In sixteenth- century England it was usually put as “apparel” rather than “clothes”; Shakespeare’s Polonius pontificates, “The apparel oft proclaims the man”
(Hamlet, 1.3). It was a cliché by the nineteenth century.
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close ranks
Unite against a common opponent, present a united front. The term originated in the 1600s in the military, where it also was put as “to close files.” It alluded to the style of battle in which the troops were aligned side by side in neat rows; the order to “close ranks” meant to move the rows closer together, creating a seemingly impenetrable mass of men. The term was soon being used figuratively and became a cliché. For example, “Will the wankel [engine] be enough to sustain NSU as an independent motor company, or will NSU one day have to close ranks further with Citroen?”
(Economist, Sept. 2, 1967).
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close quarters, at/in
Crowded, in a confined space. The term comes from eighteenth-century naval warfare. Wooden barriers were placed at vari- ous points on a ship, so that when an enemy boarded, the crew could retreat behind them and fire at the enemy through loopholes. The crew then were said to be fighting in close quarters, that is, in close contact with the enemy. The term later was transferred to any close contact or crowded situation
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close call/shave, a
A narrow escape, a near miss. Both phrases are origi- nally American. The first dates from the 1880s and is thought to come from sports, where a close call was a decision by an umpire or referee that could have gone either way. A close shave is from the early nineteenth century and reflects the narrow margin between smoothly shaved skin and a nasty cut from the razor. Both were transferred to mean any narrow escape from dan- ger. Incidentally, a close shave was in much earlier days equated with miserli- ness. Erasmus’s 1523 collection of adages has it, “He shaves right to the quick,” meaning he makes the barber give him a very close shave so that he will not need another for some time. Two synonymous modern clichés are too close for comfort and too close to home.
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close but no cigar, (it was)
Nearly successful, but not quite. This slangy Americanism dates from the first half of the twentieth century. It most likely came from the practice of giving a cigar as a prize to the winner of a contest, such as hitting the target in a carnival shooting gallery
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cloak-and-dagger
Describing a secret or undercover operation. The term dates from seventeenth-century Spain, and the popular swashbuckling plays
of Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderón de la Barca, filled with duels, intrigue, and betrayal. They were referred to as comedias de capa y espada, which was variously translated as “cloak-and-sword” or “cloak-and-dagger plays.” Some- what later, in the nineteenth century, the term began to be applied to various kinds of romantic intrigue, and still later, to espionage. The idea of conceal- ment was, of course, much older, and indeed, Chaucer wrote of “The smyler with the knyf under the cloke” (The Knight’s Tale).
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clip someone’s wings, to
To deflate a conceited person. Although at first glance this phrase might seem to have a military origin (from demoting an officer whose rank is indicated by wings), the metaphor actually comes from birds—specifically, the practice of clipping the wings of domestic fowl so they cannot fly away—and dates from ancient Roman times. “Away to prison with him, I’ll clippe his winges,” wrote Christopher Marlowe (The Massacre at Paris, 1590, 3.2).
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clip joint
An establishment such as a nightclub or restaurant that habitu- ally overcharges or cheats customers. The verb “to clip” has been a slangy synonym for “to cheat” since the 1920s. The equally slangy cliché came soon afterward. It is still a frequent usage. The television comedy Seinfeld had it
in 1992: “What kind of clip joint are you running here?”
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clinging vine
An extremely dependent person. Today this term is mildly pejorative—such a person is not considered particularly admirable—but earlier uses of this figure of speech carry no such criticism. Indeed, the vine
in question, nearly always a woman or wife, was also praised for potential or actual fruitfulness (i.e., childbearing ability). “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house,” says the Book of Psalms (128:3).
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climb the wall(s), to
To be driven to action out of restlessness or frustra- tion. In the Book of Joel (2:7) the writer says, “They shall climb the wall like men of war,” and, in fact, until relatively recent times cities and towns were surrounded by defensive walls, which protected them against their enemies. The fierceness of attackers who climbed such walls survives in the sense of frenzy suggested by the modern cliché. See also DRIVE (SOMEONE) UP THE WALL.
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blind alley, (up) a
A dead end, either literally (a street or passage with only one entrance) or figuratively (a situation without hope of progress). The term dates from the sixteenth century.
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blind as a bat/beetle/mole
Totally blind, or, figuratively, unseeing. None
of these animals is, by the way, truly blind. The bat flies about in the dark in
seemingly erratic paths (see BATS IN ONE’S BELFRY), and the beetle and mole
burrow through the ground. Nevertheless, these similes are quite old and have
become clichés. The bat analogy dates from the sixteenth century at least (John
Harvey); the mole and beetle similes come from Roman times and were cited
in translations by Erasmus.
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blessing in disguise, a
Good luck coming out of bad; a misfortune unexpectedly turning into a good thing. “E’en crosses from his sov’reign hand are blessings in disguise,” wrote the eighteenth-century poet James Hervey, “cross” here meaning “a cross to bear,” or burden. The phrase has been a cliché for about a century.
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blessed event
The birth of a baby. This cloyingly sentimental cliché, dating from about 1920, may well be dying out. It uses blessed in the sense of “happy,” not in the ironic sense of “cursed” or “damned” (as in “Every blessed piece of today’s mail is a bill”).
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bleed someone white, to
To extort money, to take someone’s last penny. The term dates from the seventeenth century. One writer claims it was coined by gamblers; once a victim had been made to PAY THROUGH THE NOSE (lost all one’s blood through one’s nose), one was bled white. More likely the saying relates to the fact that money was considered the lifeblood
of trade and commerce.
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bleeding heart
An excessively sympathetic or tender-hearted individual. The adjective bleeding has been used figuratively for full of anguish from pity or compassion since the late 1500s. Edmund Spenser so used it in The Faerie Queene: “These bleeding words she gan to say.” The cliché is much newer, dating from the first half of the twentieth century. I. T. Ross had it in Murder out of School (1960), “A lot of bleeding-hearts got the idea they knew about everything.”
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blaze a trail, to
To find a new path or begin a new enterprise. The term comes from the practice of marking a forest trail by making blazes, that is, spots or marks on trees made by notching or chipping away pieces of the bark. The term was first used in eighteenth-century America by scouts who marked new trails for the soldiers behind them, and was used figuratively from the late nineteenth century on.
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black sheep
A deviant or eccentric; the least successful, least admirable member of a group. Black sheep were long considered less valuable than white ones because their wool could not readily be dyed. Several sixteenth- century writers wrote of the black sheep as a dangerous (“perilous”) ani- mal, among them John Lyly. In the eighteenth century, the application to the human deviant became common. Sir Walter Scott wrote, “The curates know best the black sheep of the flock” (1816), and “the black sheep of the family” was an increasingly common way of singling out the odd member.
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black book, (put) in one’s
Out of favor, disgraced. The term comes from actual listings of those to be censured or punished by the authorities, which date from the fifteenth century. The agents of Henry VIII, for example, com- piled a black book of English monasteries listed as “sinful.” An eighteenth- century history of Oxford University also describes a proctor’s black book which, if one was listed in it, proscribed proceeding to a university degree. Today, however, one’s little black book may signify a personal address book, list- ing the telephone numbers of friends, especially those of the opposite sex.
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black as night/pitch/the ace of spades
Very dark indeed. To these overused similes one can add ink (Spenser, Shakespeare), the crow or raven
(Petronius, Chaucer), soot (John Ray’s proverbs, 1678), ebony (Shake- speare), and coal (Chaucer). The comparison to night (and also midnight) was more common in the nineteenth century, although Milton also used it
(Paradise Lost), whereas black as pitch dates from Homer’s time (Iliad).
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bitter pill (to swallow)
Something that is painful or hard to accept, as in
“Being fired from one’s first job is a bitter pill to swallow.” The term bitter pill
has been used figuratively for an unpleasant situation or fact since the sixteenth
century. Horace Walpole had the precise locution: “It was a bitter pill for the
King to swallow” (Last Journals, 1779). On the other hand, the more philosoph-
ical view that bad-tasting medicine may be beneficial has existed alongside the
cliché. “Bitter pills may have blessed effects” was recorded in James Kelly’s
Scottish Proverbs (1721), and Thomas Fuller put it as “wholesome effects” in Gno-
mologia (1732).
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bitter end, (fight) to the
The last extremity, the conclusion of a tough battle or other difficult situation. The term comes from seamanship, where
“the bitter end” is that part of the chain or anchor cable that is secured inside the vessel and is seldom used. It is so described in Captain Smith’s Seaman’s Grammar of 1627: “A bitter is but the turne of a Cable about the bitts, and veare it out by little and little. And the Bitter’s end is that part of the Cable doth stay within board.” It was sometimes spelled better; Daniel Defoe, in Robinson Crusoe (1719), described a terrible storm, saying, “We rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the better end.” A much earlier version is found in Chaucer’s The Squire’s Tale: “They demen gladly to the badder ende” (translated by the Reverend Walter W. Skeat as “worse end”).
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bite your tongue
Hope that what you just said doesn’t come true. This imperative is a translation of the Yiddish saying, Bays dir di tsung, and is used
in informal conversation. For example, “You think it’ll rain on their outdoor
ceremony? Bite your tongue!” A much older but related phrase is to bite one’s
tongue, meaning to remain silent when provoked—literally, to hold it
between one’s teeth so as to suppress speaking. Shakespeare had it in Henry
VI, Part 2 (1.1): “So Yorke must sit, and fret, and bite his tongue.” See also
HOLD ONE’S TONGUE.
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bite the hand that feeds you, to
To show ingratitude; to turn against those who have helped you. The metaphor of a dog biting the master or mistress who fills its bowl is very old. It was especially popular in the eigh- teenth century; for example, the Irish statesman Edmund Burke wrote,
“And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them” (1790). Two centuries later, a physicist who insisted on anonymity said, “Nobel laureates don’t want to bite the hand that feeds them” and hence are reluctant to criticize the award system (NewYork Times, Oct. 17, 1989).
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bite the dust, to
To be defeated or killed. The term became popular from American western films, in which cowboys and/or Indians frequently
“bit the dust”—that is, were shot or shoved off their horses to the dusty ground. It became current in the late 1930s. However, the term occurs even earlier in William Cullen Bryant’s translation (1870) of Homer’s Iliad
(“his fellow warriors . . . fall round him to the earth and bite the dust”) and
it also is found in translations of Virgil’s Aeneid.
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bite the bullet, to
To brace oneself against pain or a difficult experi- ence. This expression is believed to come from the days when those wounded in battle had to be treated without anesthesia and were made to bite on a lead bullet to brace themselves against the pain of surgery. Cer- tainly this was the meaning in Rudyard Kipling’s The Light That Failed
(1891): “Bite on the bullet, old man, and don’t let them think you’re afraid.” However, some authorities suggest that the term comes from the practice of gunners biting off the end of a paper-tube cartridge in order to expose the powder to the spark. In times of anesthesia and more sophisti- cated weaponry, biting the bullet became entirely figurative, as when P. G. Wodehouse wrote, “Brace up and bite the bullet. I’m afraid I have bad news” (The Inimitable Jeeves, 1923).
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bite someone’s head off, to
To respond angrily to a moderate or harmless request or remark. It appears to have replaced two earlier versions, to bite someone’s nose off, which dates back to the sixteenth century (“She would . . . bite off a man’s nose with an answere,” Thomas Nashe, 1599), and to snap someone’s head off, current in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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bite off more than one can chew, to
To take on more than one can accomplish; also, to be too greedy or too ambitious. Versions of this cliché, warning against taking on too much, date from the Middle Ages and appear in ancient Chinese writings as well. A lighthearted more recent example is
Ogden Nash’s (from “Prayer at the End of a Rope,” 1939): “Let me not bite
more off the cob than I have teeth to chew; please let me finish just one job
before the next is due.”
get under someone’s skin, to
To annoy someone. This expression no doubt alludes to the irritation caused by burrowing insects, which can cause intense itching. Cole Porter, however, used the expression quite differently in
his song, “I’ve Got You under My Skin” (from Born to Dance, 1936), which
describes a romantic addiction to a person rather than an insect infestation or a
persistent annoyance.
get to the point, to
To speak plainly; to address the main issue. This expression, which in British parlance is usually phrased come to the point, dates from Chaucer’s time. Chaucer himself wrote in the “Prologue” to The Canterbury Tales, “This is the poynt, to speken short and pleyn.”
get to first base, to
To succeed in the initial phase of an undertaking. This phrase, derived from baseball, was transferred to other enterprises by the late nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century it acquired another more specific meaning as well: to reach the first stage of petting, which is kissing.
get the lead out of one’s feet
Get going, stop delaying. Lead being a heavy material, the source of this expression, usually an imperative (“Get the lead out of your feet!”), seems fairly clear. There are numerous variants for “feet,” mostly less polite (pants, britches, ass, butt), and shake is some- times substituted for “get.” It is also sometimes shortened to simply get the lead out. The term originated in America in the first half of the twentieth century and became widely used in the armed services during World War II.
get someone’s goat, to
To annoy someone, to make a person lose his or her temper. This term is definitely American in origin, but its precise prove- nance has been lost. H. L. Mencken was told that it came from the practice
of putting a goat inside a skittish racehorse’s stall in order to calm it down. Removing the goat shortly before the race would upset the horse and reduce its chances of winning, a ruse supposedly planned by a gambler who had bet on the horse’s losing. This explanation seems more far-fetched than
a possible connection of the term with the verb “to goad.” In any event, it came into use about 1900.
get someone’s dander up, to
To make someone very angry. The origin
of this term is disputed. Most likely “dander” comes from the Dutch donder,
for “thunder,” but there are numerous other theories. The earliest reference
in print dates from 1830, in Seba Smith’s Letters of Major Jack Downing:
“When a Quaker gets his dander up it’s like a Northwester.” Also see GET
SOMEONE’S BACK UP.
get someone’s back up, to
To make someone angry. The expression alludes to the behavior of the domestic cat, which arches its back when it is attacked by a dog or is otherwise annoyed. This term began in the early eighteenth century as to put or set up the back. By 1864 it was, “He goes his own way . . . if you put his back up” (Sunday Magazine). See also GET SOME-
ONE’S DANDER UP.
get real
Be realistic, see things as they are. This slangy imperative from the second half of the twentieth century is often used to disabuse someone
of a mistaken or fanciful notion. For example, “Win a new car by filling out those forms? Get real!”
get one’s teeth into (something), to
To come to grips with some- thing; to work energetically at something. Though the image of sinking one’s teeth into something is surely much older, the expression appears to come from the early twentieth century. In Dorothy Sayers’s wonderful mystery Gaudy Night (1935), one of the women says, “If one could work here . . . getting one’s teeth into something dull and durable.”
get one’s money’s worth, to
To obtain full value for something. This term actually dates back as far as the fourteenth century, and from that time on there are numerous appearances in print citing the legal exchange of
“money or money-worth”—that is, payment is to be made in cash or its equivalent worth. It is spelled out in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost (2.1),
in which the King of Navarre explains that, in surety of the hundred thou- sand crowns still owing, “one part of Aquitaine is bound to us, although not valued to the money’s worth.” The precise modern wording dates from the nineteenth century. The English scholar Benjamin Jowett wrote (1875), “I give my pupils their money’s worth.”
get one’s feet wet, to
To venture into new territory. The allusion here is
to the timid swimmer who is wary of getting into the water at all. Although
this particular expression dates only from the early twentieth century, a sim-
ilar idea was expressed more than four hundred years earlier by John Lyly in
Euphues and his England (1580): “I resemble those that hauing once wet their
feete, care not hoe deepe they wade”; in other words, once having gotten up
one’s nerve to try something new, one is more willing to plunge in all the
way. In The Glorious Fault (1960) Leonard Mosley combined two metaphors:
“In parliamentary life, he [Curzon] was to be one who stayed to get his feet
wet before deciding that a ship was sinking.”
get one’s comeuppance
Get one’s JUST DESERTS, get the retaliation one deserves. This term dates from the mid-1800s and features virtually the only use of the noun comeuppance. William Dean Howells used it in The Rise of Silas
Lapham (1884): “Rogers is a rascal . . . but I guess he’ll find he’s got his
comeuppance.”
fickle fortune
Capricious fate. The alliteration of this phrase has long appealed to writers, and the idea behind it is even older. The expression appeared in the sixteenth century, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (3.5)—
“O fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle”—and elsewhere. Benjamin Franklin also used it: “Fortune is as fickle as she’s fair” (Poor Richard’s Almanack, 1749).
Laugh-In, a popular television show of the 1960s and 1970s, used a sim- ilar expression, the fickle finger of fate, in a mock talent contest (“Who knows when the fickle finger of fate may beckon you to stardom?”), and issued a mock prize to the winner, the Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award. Accord- ing to Eric Partridge, “f——d by the fickle finger of fate” was Canadian armed forces slang in the 1930s for being fouled up in some way, and this probably was the source of the Laugh-In usage. See also WHEEL OF FORTUNE.
few and far between
Seldom; at wide intervals. This expression is a quotation from Thomas Campbell’s poem “The Pleasures of Hope” (1799):
“What though my winged hours of bliss have been, like angel-visits, few and far between?” At first it was largely applied to rare pleasures, but later it was extended to any rare occurrence.
femme fatale
An attractive woman who is, for one reason or another, dangerous. French for “fatal woman,” the term has been used in English since about 1900, and today it is often used more ironically than seriously. Michael Arlen used it in The Green Hat (1924): “So you heard about it from that femme fatale, did you?” Much more recently Richard Dyer used it in the sense of “very glamorous” in describing the singer who played the leading role in the opera Carmen: “She’s physically and vocally limber, and revels in her femme-fatale look” (Boston Globe, March 24, 2005).
femme fatale
An attractive woman who is, for one reason or another, dangerous. French for “fatal woman,” the term has been used in English since about 1900, and today it is often used more ironically than seriously. Michael Arlen used it in The Green Hat (1924): “So you heard about it from that femme fatale, did you?” Much more recently Richard Dyer used it in the sense of “very glamorous” in describing the singer who played the leading role in the opera Carmen: “She’s physically and vocally limber, and revels in her femme-fatale look” (Boston Globe, March 24, 2005).
feet of clay, to have
A failing or fault in one who is held in high regard. The term comes from the Bible’s Book of Daniel (2:33), in which the prophet interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of an image of gold, sil- ver, and brass, but “his feet part of iron and part of clay.” These feet were what made the image vulnerable and, according to Daniel, predicted the breakup of the empire.
feel someone’s pain, to
To empathize completely with someone. This hyperbolic idea is often asserted hypocritically, or by someone who is actually causing the pain. Thus, “I feel your pain” can be a politician’s response to a constituent who is complaining about the minimum wage, even though he actually voted against its being increased. This expression needs to be differentiated from feeling no pain, a slangy phrase from the mid-twentieth century describing someone who is intoxicated, and from I feel for you but I can’t quite reach you, a slangy response expressing lack of sympathy for someone’s hard-luck story.
feel one’s oats, to
To act frisky or lively. This saying, with its analogy to
a horse that is lively after being fed, is American in origin and dates from
the early nineteenth century. It appeared in print in Amos Lawrence’s
Extracts from Diary and Correspondence (1833): “We both ‘feel our oats’ and
our youth.”
feel it in one’s bones, to
To anticipate something; to have a premoni- tion or warning of a coming event. The expression appeared in Shake- speare’s Timon of Athens, in which the Third Lord responds to the statement that Timon is mad, “I feel ’t upon my bones” (3.6). The saying, which has been a cliché for a hundred years or so, most likely alludes to the alleged ability of those with old bone fractures and/or arthritis to forecast a change
in weather (usually rain) based on their aching bones.
fed to the gills
Thoroughly disgusted. This American version of the ear- lier British fed to the (back) teeth and fed (up) to the eyelids is based on the slang meaning of gills for the human mouth.
feather one’s nest, to
To enrich oneself, to provide well for oneself. Alluding to the practice of birds making a soft nest for their eggs and young, this expression originated in the sixteenth century. It appeared in the 1553 play Respublica (1:1) by an unknown author, as well as in several other works of the period. It was a cliché by the eighteenth century.
feather in one’s cap, a
A special honor or achievement. This term comes from the custom of numerous peoples—American Indian tribes, Turks, Himalayan peoples, among others—of placing a feather in a soldier’s cap for every enemy he kills. The term began to be used figuratively by the early seventeenth century and was a cliché by the time Laurence Sterne wrote, “The feather put into his cap of having been abroad” (Tristram Shandy,
1761–67).
feast or famine
Either an overabundance or a shortage. This expression originated as either feast or fast, which is how it appeared in Thomas Fuller’s Gnomologia (1732) and still survived in 1912 (“Dock labour has been graphi- cally described as ‘either a feast or a fast,’” London Daily Telegraph). In Amer- ica, famine was substituted sometime during the twentieth century. The term is still frequently applied to alternating overabundance and shortages
of work, as is often the case for freelancers, seasonal laborers, and the like.
feast one’s eyes on, to
To enjoy the sight of something or someone. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 47, “With my love’s picture then my eye doth feast,” is one of the early sources of this metaphor. It may have been a cliché by the time George Meredith used it in The Adventures of Harry Richmond (1871):
“The princess . . . let her eyes feast incessantly on a laughing sea.”
eyes in the back of one’s head, to have
To be exceptionally alert. This expression dates from Roman times, appearing in Plautus’s play Aulularia
(c. 210 B.C.) and cited by Erasmus in his collection of adages. Put slightly differently, it appeared in John Still’s play Gammer Gurton’s Needle (c. 1565):
“Take heed of Sim Glovers wife, she hath an eie behind her!” (2.2).
do’s and don’ts
Rules about what one should and shouldn’t do or say in certain situations. One of the earliest uses of this term appeared in 1902 as the title of a book, Golf Do’s and Don’ts. It rapidly spread into numerous other contexts, as in “Her big sister was about to tell her the do’s and don’ts of a first date.” It has been a cliché for some decades.
do’s and don’ts
Rules about what one should and shouldn’t do or say in certain situations. One of the earliest uses of this term appeared in 1902 as the title of a book, Golf Do’s and Don’ts. It rapidly spread into numerous other contexts, as in “Her big sister was about to tell her the do’s and don’ts of a first date.” It has been a cliché for some decades.
do or die, to
To make a last-ditch effort. This extreme measure was first recorded in print in the seventeenth century. An early use occurs in John Fletcher’s play The Island Princess (1621), where a character says, “Do or die”
(2.4). Before long it came to be used figuratively, although it reverted to lit- eral use (and changed form) in Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
(1854): “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Into the valley of
Death Rode the six hundred.”
do one’s own thing, to
To find self-expression or self-fulfillment in some activity. Although this term is very old indeed—numerous references can be found in Chaucer, as in The Merchant’s Tale (“where as they doon hir thynges”)—it became hackneyed during the 1960s. Rebelling against the establishment, the unconventional “dropped out” of society and joined com- munes where they would “do their own thing.” One might wonder how many of them were familiar with Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance
(1841), in which he said, “I have difficulty to detect the precise man you are.... But do your own thing and I shall know you.”
do one’s heart good, to
To cheer or be cheered up, to make someone feel good, to gratify. A cliché since the nineteenth century, it was known in the sixteenth century, and appeared in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (1.2): “I will roare that I will doe any man’s heart good to heare me.”
See also WARM THE COCKLES OF ONE’S HEART.
don’t take any wooden nickels
Protect yourself (against fraud, loss, and so on). This warning against counterfeit coins dates from about 1900 and is distinctly American in origin, the nickel being a U.S. or Canadian five-cent coin. Why a wooden coin was selected is not known. Presumably making coins of wood would always have been more expensive than the intrinsic value of metal coins. Several writers suggest it replaced don’t take any wooden nutmegs, a now obsolete saying dating from colonial times when sharp traders sold wooden nutmegs mixed in with the real spice. In print the expression is found in Ring Lardner’s story, The Real Dope (1919), “In the mean wile—until we meet again—don’t take no wood nickles [sic] and don’t get impatient and be a good girlie.”
don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
Accept a gift in good faith. This saying, which dates from St. Jerome’s biblical commentary (c. A.D. 420) on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, is based on the fact that a horse’s age is revealed by its teeth. Looking inside a horse’s mouth therefore will tell you
if someone is passing off an old nag for a spry colt. The same expression is found in French, Italian, Portuguese, and other languages.
don’t let the grass grow under your feet
Act with dispatch; don’t delay. This expression dates from the sixteenth century. It appeared in print
in 1607 in Edward Topsell’s natural history, Foure-Footed Beasts (“The hare
. . . leaps away again, and letteth no grass grow under his feet”).
don’t give/care a rap for
Worthless to me; without any interest. The
“rap” in question was a base halfpenny that was worth only half a farthing
and was circulating in Ireland in the early eighteenth century because small
coins at that time were very scarce. Jonathan Swift described it in Drapier’s
Letters (1724): “Copper halfpence or farthings . . . have been for some time
very scarce and many counterfeits passed about under the name of raps.”
Consequently the name was adopted for anything of little value and was so
used by the early nineteenth century. W. H. Ainsworth wrote (Rookwood,
1834), “For the mare-with-three-legs [i.e., the gallows] I care not a rap.”
don’t count your chickens before they hatch
Don’t spend or try to profit from something not yet earned. This expression comes from Aesop’s fable about a milkmaid carrying a full pail on her head who daydreams about selling the milk for eggs that will hatch into chickens and make her so rich she will toss her head at offers of marriage; but she prematurely tosses her head and spills the milk. It was, like so many Greek fables, translated into modern European languages and passed on. The expression was in use figuratively by the sixteenth century and appeared in proverb collections soon afterward.
don’t change/swap horses in midstream
Don’t change methods or leaders in the middle of a crisis. Although originating a quarter of a century earlier, the expression became famous through its use by President Lincoln
in 1864 when he learned that his renomination for a second term was being backed by the National Union League. Several versions of his speech were recorded, some having it change and others swap.
