Sorry, but when I saw her on the show, I thought it was a great euphemism! 

Quote from: angelface555 on February 09, 2017, 11:59:42 PM
Sorry, but when I saw her on the show, I thought it was a great euphemism! 

Not to be sorry. ----

I just thought it would be a good time for a reminder, lest we all start wandering. At times I have a way of coming across stronger than intended.      

welcome   â€œaboard”

learning the “ropes”

get at the “helm” of...

" Two heads are better than one...."

....often said by late father when help, or a solution was needed, rather than tackling it alone...

[Reminds me of a cartoon at the movies when I was a kid. A giant with two heads was walking down the street, one foot on the sidewalk, the other on the road, the two heads singing "Oh, you'll take the high road and I'll take the low road..." ]

Adding -
1035 - You can hang your hat on it.
1036 - Get a grip on yourself/it/things
1037 - " Two heads are better than one...."

welcome   â€œaboard”
learning the “ropes”
get at the “helm” of...

I think these are too much like "offhanded" comments - like good morning, good evening, dinner time, sit down. ---- What say everyone else?

Going back to our subject - topic beginnings...I have tended to stick with the idioms that were said between my family members whilst growing up, then using the same idioms on my daughter as she was growing up, being passed from generation to generation.....I also try to put the explanation as to how, when and why, we would have personally used it, which may not always have been in the same context of the general meaning.....But now I am running out of them...cant think that far back anymore, unless something springs to mind, or someone posts an idiom that jogs my memory....

Quote from: Vanilla-Jackie on February 28, 2017, 01:18:16 AM
..............I also try to put the explanation as to how, when and why, we would have personally used it, which may not always have been in the same context of the general meaning.

.....But now I am running out of them...cant think that far back anymore, unless something springs to mind, or someone posts an idiom that jogs my memory....

I enjoy and appreciate the explanations. Often the wording or meaning is different than heard locally. Some I've never heard.

"cant think that far back anymore" - bet that fits many of us 

Once in a while I recall one during the day, but before I get to the ole computer it's "gone". 

I often jot them down as I remember the odd one but, then that piece of paper just somehow slips my mind, so I have .......

" gone back to square one......"

as I cant remember it, because I forgot I wrote it down somewhere, so forget the piece of paper...

1038 - under the wire.
1039 - In the nick of time.

clutch at straws

white elephant
white knight

1040 - clutch at straws / Grabbing straws
1041 - white elephant
1042 - white knight
                  Is that the same as "A Knight in shining armor"?

i never heard "A Knight in shining armor" but I suppose it could be the same.

Bubble yes, it is used quite often here in UK, it means someone coming to ones aid...basically from a difficult situation..Can also be said in humour such as...after my divorce when I was feeling low and helpless, along came John, " My Knight in shining armour..."

We had "Knights in shining armour" around my neck of the woods, too.

Jackie - Thanks for that definition.

Bubble - Do you think they are reasonably similar?

Yes, the meaning is the same.  I suppose the difference comes from spoken in different locations.

on the nail

We have that one too, Bubble, only we...

"Hit the nail on the head!"

Now have we had?....

" bury the hatchet..."

used as in, a family feud, if one doesn't bury the hatchet and make ones peace, the feud will carry on and never end, and just cause friction...

449 - It is time to bury the hatchet

I was drying my hair this morning and something popped into my head that my grandmother used to say to us before the advent of personal hair dryers.  If we prepared to go out and our hair was still wet and the weather was cold, she would say, "you can't go out with wet hair....

You'll catch your death of darn foolishness!"

How about then....

" there's no flies on you..."

..meaning that person is intelligent and can think quickly, so no getting past him or her...he - she is no fool...

JANE S...we would say...
" you cant go out with wet hair, you will catch yourself a death of a cold..."

similar to ..
" drinking out of wet cups..."

1043 - " there's no flies on you/him/her..."
1044 - you'll catch yourself a death of (you name it).


Never heard - " drinking out of wet cups..."   Comments?

No I cant find it either, but it was sure said in my house when I was young and growing up....I was warned if I drank out of wet cups I would catch myself a cold..or was it...if I caught a cold, it was because it was drinking out of wet cups, cant remember which...anyway, maybe it was a family personal thing.. all I remember was it made me laugh when it was said to me...

Put that one in as Jackie's submission because my grandmother did NOT say "yourself".  It was simply "your",

JANE S...yes it was a grandma thing, wasn't it? guess it is older than I thought...well I was eleven going on twelve when I lost my grandma..come to think of it, think she said, your catch yourself a death of cold....or was that when I didn't wrap up warm when I went out of the house, particularly in the snow, and possibly on the way to school.....

Around here we would hear "You'll catch a death of pneumonia".  Same meaning, just a regional variance.

I think what I heard often was a "grandmother variance".  She always said we'd catch our death of "darn foolishness".  Meaning, I suppose, that it was foolish of us to go out with wet hair or dressed as we were.  But that was my grandmother.  She had some very apt words.

Sounds like we all had some very wise grandmothers...