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Tagged with british-english idioms
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Current prevalence of idiom "pulling for you"
A prior question asks about the origin of the phrase "pulling for you," a phrase that conveys well-wishes and support (Merriam-Webster):
US, informal
: to say or show that one hopes (...
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Is the phrase "put paid to" widely understood outside of the UK?
A comment on this question notes that the phrase "put paid to" (meaning put a stop to) is unlikely to be understood in the US. Another comment indicates that the phrase is widely understood ...
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Is "in case of need" idiomatic British English?
I've been shown an Out of Office template, and one of the sentences in it asks the sender to contact someone else within the company "in case of need", as the email will not be forwarded.
I'...
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What does "a chip of strawberries" mean?
In Chapter 10 of Ulysses, there is another confusing quote among all the other innumerable "poetic" and "literary" and "metaphorical" ones:
Blazes Boylan walked here and ...
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Meaning of "after the pips"
For 100 years, the BBC has parceled up disaster and defeat, then distributed them, after the pips and before the weather forecast, to the British.
"After the pips" should be something ...
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What are searchers called?
Today my teacher taught me about using the prefix "re" to mean that you are doing something again. So for the word "Research" it means that you are doing some "search" ...
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The Wednesday afternoon train to Crewe will now run on Thursday mornings and will not stop at Crewe
In the House of Lords debate on the Schools Bill on Monday 18th July 2022, the Labour Party peer Lord Grocott mocked the fact that the first 18 clauses of the Bill have been withdrawn. He said to the ...
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Can the idiom "fall off the wagon" be said to be "chiefly American"?
I read an answer on another site which referred to the idiom of falling off the wagon as being "chiefly American". That got me curious since I would have thought that this particular idiom ...
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What does having a hat "on three hairs" mean, and where does that expression come from?
In my reading I came across this description:
His old red coat was sponged and pressed, his whiskers shone with pomade, his cap was on three hairs, his cane under his arm, and his monocle in his eye. ...
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What feelings are expressed by the verb "to miss (someone)"?
This might sound like a silly question, but what feelings does the verb "to miss (someone)" exactly express?
I know in which context the verb is used, but not the exact feelings behind it, ...
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What do you call a client who is one of the most important for your business? [closed]
We are a small company and we treat this as an advantage. We work with a very limited number of clients, so each and every one of them is super important for us. We can't afford to screw anything up ...
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Where does 'po-faced' come from etymologically, geographically, and chronologically?
The entry for po-faced in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) reads as follows:
po-faced adj {perh. fr. po chamber pot, toilet, fr. F pot pot} (1934) Brit : having an assumed ...
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Put the right man "on the right job" or "in the right job"?
I googled and found some examples with "in". But when I asked my native friend, he told me it should be "on".
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No test that you wouldn't have had done before
No test that you wouldn't have had done before
https://youtu.be/4nm6Xaxvqd0?t=200 (3:20)
Is this phrase grammatical? There's no idiom such as would (not) have or have done.
What about No test you ...
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Meaning of "no odds against success affected me"
Now I was in the right mood for these undertakings – failure being almost certain, no odds against success affected me.
It's used in the above sentence. Failure being almost certain means that sure ...
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