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Original poster

To have completely misunderstood the meaning of some sayings?

843 replies

KermitTheToad · 18/11/2025 20:53

I only found out today that the term Social Butterfly refers to someone who is outgoing and loves social events. I thought it meant you didn't like social events, as in you would fly away and avoid them. I also until recently thought that a Spendthrift is somebody who is frugal in their spending. I assumed that as thrifty meant not being wasteful, that Spendthrift meant being careful in what you spent.
YANBU..I see where you are coming from.
YABU.. You are a wally, go back to school!

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7
Choccyp1g · 19/11/2025 10:46

Hellohelga · 18/11/2025 23:00

Horses for courses

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You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink
Changing horses mid-stream

typo edited

RafaFan · 19/11/2025 10:40

eeeeLad · 19/11/2025 06:28

Sorry if someone's already asked I don't want to lose my place in the thread while I finish reading, but why did he coin it a 'catch 22' do you know? Rather than any other random combination of words and numbers! I'd love to know if there's more to it than that. Am I being dumb though now 😄

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I assume catch was used, in the meaning of "what's the catch?", i.e. the downside. Not sure about why it was number 22.

60andcounting · 19/11/2025 10:40

A girl I used to work with would say phallus, instead of fallacy..

largeredformeplease · 19/11/2025 10:35

MagpiePi · 19/11/2025 10:31

Also trim, as in trim a christmas tree, or trim your hair.

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Is that not just the same meaning? Is trimming a Christmas tree not just the same as trimming your hair? Cutting bits off?

Countryfiler · 19/11/2025 10:32

One of my pet hates is people using “10 to the dozen” when they mean the opposite. So they say my heart was going ten to the dozen which would actually be slower. The phrase should be nineteen to the dozen, so more beats and faster.

Great thread btw 😊

MagpiePi · 19/11/2025 10:31

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:58

Yes. Cleave is another word which has two completely opposite meanings.

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Also trim, as in trim a christmas tree, or trim your hair.

Jugendstiel · 19/11/2025 10:21

RaraRachael · 18/11/2025 23:40

A local newspaper had an article about a musician who'd been appearing with celebrities ' "Young Musician mixes with the hoi polloi" 🙄

I remember my dad ranting about the misuse of that years ago. We used to live near a fancy clothes boutique called Hoi Polloi. It made me giggle.

diddl · 19/11/2025 10:19

Have we had "another think coming" / "another thing coming" on this thread yet?

Noooooooooo!😂

DadDadDad · 19/11/2025 10:18

An error / mishearing that I seem to have seen more of recently is saying "step foot" instead of "set foot". It makes sense, but the older phrase is to say "I've never set foot in X " ie never placed your foot inside X.

Have we had "another think coming" / "another thing coming" on this thread yet?

diddl · 19/11/2025 10:18

I still think 'tender hooks' makes sense, like the S shape hooks butchers hang meet on to tenderize it

Tenterhooks were used to stretch cloth & keep it tense.

How does being nervous equate to being tenderised?

Catpiece · 19/11/2025 10:14

Mothership4two · 19/11/2025 06:23

I thought the Cold War was called that because the USSR had a cold climate until DH put me straight and told me it's because there was no direct military fighting! In my defence I was a dippy teenager at the time!

Well I never! I always thought the same! Because the weather was cold. All on the Russian ships in fur hats breathing onto their gloved hands to keep warm.

Kreepture · 19/11/2025 10:13

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:55

Thrift means being careful with your money. It doesn't mean wealth (though you might get wealthy by being thrifty). Or did you mean that thrift used to mean wealth? I can't find the comment you referred to.

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thrift originates from the phrase 'to thrive' and means wealth.

thrifty means being careful with money.

They're not the same word and don't have the same meaning.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 19/11/2025 10:10

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:55

Thrift means being careful with your money. It doesn't mean wealth (though you might get wealthy by being thrifty). Or did you mean that thrift used to mean wealth? I can't find the comment you referred to.

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It does now. It didn't many centuries ago. https://www.etymonline.com/word/thrift

Lots of words and phrases in English are remnants of a time when a word meant something different from its modern meaning. Nice is one. You still occasionally hear someone, probably a laywer or pedant, use the phrase 'a nice distinction', but 'nice' there means something different from a vague 'that's pleasant enough', which is what most people mean by 'nice' now. It seems to have had a particularly eventful history from the online etymology entry! https://www.etymonline.com/word/nice

Catpiece · 19/11/2025 10:10

Nonplussed always reminds me of duckbilled platypus. Every time I see it written.

Thatsalineallright · 19/11/2025 10:09

soupyspoon · 18/11/2025 22:21

No, a friend in need, is a friend indeed because they'll do anything for you because you're going to help them, so they are acting 'like a good friend' because they want something out of you.

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No, that's not what it means. It's when someone is a friend to you in your time of need, that proves they're a true friend.

EscapeTheCastle · 19/11/2025 10:05

largeredformeplease · 19/11/2025 08:22

well, edibles meaning drugs is a colloquialism.

your friend is correct. edible really just means something that cab be eaten. it has just become accepted as shorthand for "edible drugs".

It's always annoyed me a bit, to be honest. In the same way that hen do / hen party / hen night seems tovhave beeh replaced with just "hen".

"what are we doing for Janet's hen?" etc.

Hate it. Hen do / hen night / hen party are all fine. dont like hen.

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No, that was my point, edibles, the use of the plural. The "s" has come to mean drugs. Previously the word edible was just that. No plural was used. This is an edible item. This is a weed. This is weed.
You get me bruv?

SnakesandKnives · 19/11/2025 10:04

One which seems to come up a lot now and hasn’t been mentioned yet is ‘changed tack’ - so many people seem to think it’s ’changed tact’ for some reason

@CaveMum had no idea ‘on your Tod’ was another horse one - v interesting to look up! Poor guy :(

i was guilty of the dance settee mishear but it’s def better than the actual line so I’m keeping it

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:58

BunnyLake · 19/11/2025 09:24

Sanction is a funny word. I’d get confused about it when younger as it has two opposite meanings depending on the context.

Yes. Cleave is another word which has two completely opposite meanings.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/11/2025 09:56

As a child I wondered for ages why bottles or orange squash said ‘Dilute to taste’. How daft! You didn’t need to dilute it to taste it! 😂

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:55

Kreepture · 19/11/2025 09:41

nope, thrifty mans frugal, thrift meant wealth, as a couple of us explained upthread.
similar words, different meanings.

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Thrift means being careful with your money. It doesn't mean wealth (though you might get wealthy by being thrifty). Or did you mean that thrift used to mean wealth? I can't find the comment you referred to.

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 19/11/2025 09:53

confusedlots · 18/11/2025 21:10

I’ve always assumed spendthrift meant the opposite, I really never knew this!

You don’t really see ‘thrift’ as a standalone noun any more (except perhaps in ‘thrift shop) only ‘thrifty’, but it meant wealth/money/resources, so a spendthrift was a spender of those, rather than someone who nurtured them.

An ex SiL of mine was such an extreme spendthrift that a relative cut the BiL out of her will, so that SiL wouldn’t get her hands on any of her money to waste!

But by the time she died they were divorced, and dh and other BiLs had their brother reinstated.

Lastfroginthebox · 19/11/2025 09:51

CryMyEyesViolet · 19/11/2025 08:32

Isn’t the epicentre effectively the source/centre point of an earthquake? The epicentre of the drug trade makes perfect sense if so because it’s a metaphor for the strongest point that then has ripple effects much further out?

Or have I also misunderstood epicentre?

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Strictly speaking, 'epicentre' is the point directly above the centre of something, like an earthquake. So it's actually not the strongest point where the original disturbance is. (The 'epi' prefix means the top or outer bit, as in epidermis - the top layer of skin.) In that way, you couldn't have an epicentre of a drug trade. But, like many words, it's changed meaning over time so we think if it as the centre of almost anything bad.

CharlotteCChapel · 19/11/2025 09:49

CurlyhairedAssassin · 18/11/2025 21:10

Heavy plant crossing. I was flummoxed by that one for years. Always thought of triffids when I was a kid. Knew it couldn't be that but it was years into adulthood before I knew for sure what it meant. (probably when Google was invented so I could look it up without embarrassing myself by asking an acutal human).

I once saw a sign that said CAUTION HEAVY
PLANT crossing.

venus7 · 19/11/2025 09:47

Makeitstop2025 · 18/11/2025 21:12

Tall, Dark and Handsome. I always pictured that to mean a white man and that the "dark" was in reference to features such as black/brown hair or brown eyes. A friend told me that the dark was in reference to skin colour and that it basically meant a person of colour.

Before anyone comments that it shows my bias, I am a person of colour!

It means what you first thought, not your friend's theory.

Iwanttobuticant · 19/11/2025 09:47

My DH always thought that when instructions on a tube of cream said apply liberally you had to use very little and when it said use sparingly you smothered it on 🤦‍♀️.

Ive always struggled with ‘lucked out’. I assumed it meant you lost out, missed out, out of luck type of thing but it seems it means the opposite. That makes no sense to me 🤣

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