See WRITING ON THE WALL.
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get one’s act together
Get organized, behave effectively. This slangy expression, dating from about 1960, alludes to show business. It does so even more explicitly in “I’m getting my act together and taking it on the road” (NewYork Times, June 15, 1980).
fate worse than death, a
Seduction or rape of a woman. This term, orig- inating about the mid-seventeenth century, became a cliché in the late nine- teenth century, when it also began to be used in a jocular fashion for sexual relations among willing partners. E. R. Burroughs, however, still meant it seriously: “The ape . . . bearing Jane Porter away toward a fate a thousand times worse than death” (Tarzan, 1917).
get off one’s duff
Get moving, become active. This slangy idiom uses duff in the sense of buttocks, a usage dating from about 1840 and at that time considered impolite. It no longer is, at least not in America, and if any- thing this cliché is a euphemism for still ruder synonyms, such as get off one’s butt or get off one’s ass
fat city
Prosperous circumstances. This slangy Americanism originated about the middle of the twentieth century and is on its way to becoming a cliché. “This last jump in the Dow average has put Mr. Welch in fat city”
(Boston Globe, 1987).
get (something) off one’s chest, to
To unburden oneself of a secret, criticism, worry, or the like. The London Daily Chronicle of 1902 is cited by the OED: “To deliver a message to the world or to express the individual personality—to ‘get it off your chest’ is the horrid vulgar phrase.”
fat chance
Practically no chance at all. Although fat in this context means “good,” the term is always used ironically to mean hardly any oppor- tunity. A slangy Americanism of the twentieth century, it was used by P. G. Wodehouse in Laughing Gas: “A fat chance, of course. I should have known his psychology better.” For synonyms, see CHINAMAN’S CHANCE; SNOWBALL’S CHANCE.
