Phrases which make no sense

[WhereTheFuck]

It has just occurred to me that the phrase 'one in one out' (like when you go to a club and it's really busy) doesn't make sense. It should be 'one out one in' because you don't get to go in until someone comes out.
For some reason this is now really annoying me! Does anyone else have examples of everyday phrases that actually make no sense when you think about them?

Enough is enough.

What? I want to scream when I hear that

someone just posted on my fb that their daughter was doing a dance show for the first time in 18 months and said the phrase " break a leg ". Just why ? If she breaks a leg she may not be able to dance for another 18 months. I don't understand that saying !!

I don’t understand ‘near miss’ when you did miss eg colliding with something but very nearly hit it. Why isn’t it a ‘near hit’?

I also want to know why South African people say "oh, shame" all the time in response to any number of things!

"Sleeping like a baby"

Break a leg this illustrates theatrical suspicion, that you shouldn’t wish a performer “good luck” before a performance in case that brings them the opposite “bad luck”.
So, you wish them bad luck “break a leg”, in the hope they will have the opposite and give a star performance!

@daisym00n

“It's always in the last place you look” Of course it is. Once you’ve found it you stop looking!

What I've always known that to be is ' It's always in the last place you'd look'.

Meaning, it's always where you'd never think to check in the first place or where you least expect it to be.

@LittleBoPeepHasLostHerShit

I also want to know why South African people say "oh, shame" all the time in response to any number of things!

It's their equivalent to "Oh bless." My mate says it all the time 🤣

@NovRainbow5

Believe you me.

Makes no Seneca at all 😩

Love the irony

@dementedma

Needs must is only part of the idiom which should be " needs must when the devil drives". Its a very old saying meaning you have to do something even if you dont particularly want to.

Meaning aside, it still sounds/looks terrible. Probably worse now.

A friend once told me that she thought 'getting on like a house on fire' meant not getting on at all, having a fiery relationship or heated arguments. I couldn't fault her logic.

"Remember me to them" if you talk to someone who is passing on their regards to someone you both know.

He learnt it me, rather than he taught me?

@daisym00n

“It's always in the last place you look” Of course it is. Once you’ve found it you stop looking!

That does make sense though. It's just annoying.

To 'learn it to someone' is found in many English dialects. It's really not confusing. It's just not standard, RP-type English.

Same difference. It’s either the same or different surely?

And this might be a local one but ‘can you borrow me…’, it really winds me up, do you mean ‘can I borrow….’.

@midsomermurderess

To 'learn it to someone' is found in many English dialects. It's really not confusing. It's just not standard, RP-type English.

I did wonder that after I'd posted

Come on, let's not turn this into a disparagement of dialect. That's so dreary. And 'same difference', wel,l it's the same as six of one, half a dozen of the other. See same difference.
Are some of you not native English speakers? Loads of these are as old as the hills.

@NEE1302

'I turned around and said' - why were you facing the other way?

'At the end of the day' - why not at the beginning or middle of the day?

"Turned around and said" is actually a phrase from the Great Plague when people would stand back to back to speak to each other to avoid spreading germs. So you'd have to turn around to face away from someone before you spoke. Having said that it's a phrase which I loathe but it does have sense in its origin.

Thank goodness we have face masks these days instead of all that turning around!

My uncle used to always say "well, I'll go the foot of our stairs" when he was surprised by something.

I never understood that one!

@CrumbleLady

I haven't heard that saying for ages!! (It doesn't make any sense to me either!)

Some of these are not sayings that don't make sense but instead incorrect use of the English language.

I've never heard "I could care less"

How about

Phoning it in

suck it up

got milk?

All American

"Turned around and said" is actually a phrase from the Great Plague when people would stand back to back to speak to each other to avoid spreading germs. So you'd have to turn around to face away from someone before you spoke

You don't actually believe this nonsense, do you?

"Phoning it in" is pretty obvious surely? A phone call is a lot less effort than turning up for a conversation / meeting in person. It's making the minimal amount of effort.

It's all swings and roundabouts.
It's all much of a muchness.
It's six of one and half a dozen of the other.
All mean the same and I like using these expressions but I'm not sure they make much sense.