Confession. I don't understand a very common phrase even after googling...

[OverthinkingOlive]

Oxymoron. I don't get it? Please can somebody explain? I'm in a professional role and I own a house but for fuck sake I just don't get it.

A nice nightmare? Is that the kind of thing it means?

Dry rain?

Bitter sweet. Sarcastically military intelligence..implying you can’t be intelligent and in the military.

My friend said bitter sweet was having a child. Some parts she loved others she hated.

Just found this to hammer it home 😆

A pretty ugly oxymoron finished his shift at the used car factory and wanted to go out for a non-alcoholic beer. He walks into a bar where there was a small crowd and everyone sitting alone together. His only choice was to order a bittersweet dry martini with a side of jumbo shrimp. Everyone stared passive aggressively and the silence was deafening.

"Great Britain"

You're welcome 😊

Maybe, except the “great” refers to the size, not status.

I think I just grasped this. I thought you were being nasty insinuating I'm trying to be funny.

But. Serious and funny? Is that what you meant?

Not liking dogs definitely isn't an oxymoron. There's a WB Yeats poem called "Easter 1916" which contains the line "A terrible beauty is born", that's a classic oxymoron, two words used together that seem to have opposite meanings.

😆😆😆

Lighten up/stop being such a pedant @User1836484645R

😂

No! Gosh, wasn’t insinuating! Am completely with you on it. I just find examples really helpful and this paragraph made me smile as I enjoyed the puzzle of finding them.

But there are people who enjoy torture.
Just saying.

The dog one was just a joke, forget that one.
You’ve had some good examples - deafening silence, jumbo shrimp, bitter sweet.
Living dead, old news, sweet sorrow other good examples

No she doesn’t mean serious and funny. In her example ‘seriously funny’ would mean ‘really funny’. It’s just called an oxymoron because ‘serious’ is the opposite of the word it’s describing.

I might say to someone that you are funny (tell a good joke) but I might want to say you are particularly good at telling a joke and say you are ‘seriously funny’. And that’s the oxymoron, ‘serious’ doesn’t mean earnest/boring/unfunny it means extra or really.

I think I’m making it worse!

"A terrible beauty is born", that's a classic oxymoron, two words used together that seem to have opposite meanings.

I would not really consider that an oxymoron. I think terrible in that context is operating like awful might - inspiring of terror or inspiring of awe. that isn't the opposite meaning of beauty.

If I said I didn't like dogs and someone said that was an oxymoron I would think they are calling me a dog.

Do you own dogs or work with dogs?

Like I get if a dog walker said 'I don't like dogs?' I would think it was a bit oxymoronic, like pick a different job then.

That said I don't really like children in general (certainly couldn't be a teacher etc...) but I personally love MY kids. Which isn't oxymoronic its just biology and favoritism.

English is so hard! I am amazed at how people can learn it as adults. Blows my mind really.

stupid intelligence
mind-numbingly stimulating

That's why you're confused. It's not an oxymoron.

An oxymoron is something that is a logical impossibility.
Dry water.
a calm storm.
or as the joke goes ‘military intelligence’.

The classic example is “feather of lead” from Romeo and Juliet

I can't hear this phrase without hearing Kim from Kath & Kim