Phrases and sayings you just don't understand

[Remieatscake]

Such as:

'Life isn't a bed of roses you know''
Well, yes I think it is really because roses have thorns - the tough bits of life but they also have the beautiful petals of the flower - the good parts of life...overly simplistic but you get my drift.....

''Oh, I slept like a baby'' - surely this is meant to mean I slept badly but people seem to say it wen they have slept well. Not a mum (yet) but I am an overnight nanny amongst other things so know that babies do not generally sleep well!

Will think of some more I'm sure but in the mean time anyone else think of sayings that don't really make sense?

@lookingelsewhere

Thinking about it, it might be a reference to sitting on your hands, i.e. Doing nothing.

Thanks all and for the link, downcasteyes

"Sweet FA" has grisly origins. Read about that years ago.

“The exception that proves the rule” comes from the archaic use of “prove” to mean “test”. We hardly use “prove” in that way any more except in old-fashioned expressions like “the proof is in the pudding” and “proving-ground”.

Because we still use the expression but no longer use proof to mean test, the meaning of the expression has become twisted around so somehow we think that it means the exception demonstrates the rule, which of course is confusing.

how about fake it until you make it?

If you can't do it then how can you fake it? You can either do it or you can't?

Fake it until you make it is quite a good one. Like, I want to practice positivity. So I act optimistic until it becomes second nature.

@DontMakeMeShushYou

Muck = horse shit. Because in the days before motorised transport horse drawn was the common mode of transport and it would be difficult to go outside and not find muck.

That would make sense if the phrase meant "widely available" but, in this expression, the word "common" means low class.

It really just means "rough as horse shit".

Ooh, anyone know the origin of 'keep your eye in'? Meaning keep your skills up to date. Like, 'I'm doing some temp jobs just to keep my eye in'.

You have me curious now. It has to be a skill that involved having "a good eye", though as I type that I'm thinking the version I've heard is "keeping your hand in" which might be a reference to keeping a hand of cards to stay in a game (though might also be more practical with skills involving handwork).

I like it when I finally, suddenly, understand what an old expression means.

The other day I said, "Waste not, want not" without thinking, and then had an aha! moment, as I realised it actually meant: If you don't waste anything, you won't want for (need) anything in the future. It was like a lightbulb moment 😂

According to the OED "get your eye in" is fairly recent - mid C19 - and refers to the ability to visually judge distance in sporting activities (and the way it can take you a while to get it back if rusty)

www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/67296 (definition d)

'Keep your hand in' is much earlier - the OED has the first use at 1460 - seems just to mean doing something repeatedly so you are completely habituated to it (but also with a sense that on a bad day, your hand can be 'out')

That would make sense if the phrase meant "widely available" but, in this expression, the word "common" means low class.

It’s word play. A lot of these sayings play on the double meanings of words. (And of course ‘common’ to mean uncultured came from the same place - it’s normal, everyday, not exclusive.

Have just looked a bit at usage and it seems it’s used in both ways - common in terms of class, and common in terms of being widespread.

Which is so blindingly obvious I don't understand why it needs to be in a saying. Which is the point of any saying - something so obvious you can't disagree, to highlight a similar but not so obvious scenario - so, eg you can't have a discount on your rail ticket and still expect to travel at any time you choose = "you can't have your cake and eat it".

having kittens so freaked out you'll give birth to kittens not babies, from the days when it was thought that stressful experiences in pregnancies gave rise to physical deformities in the baby.

keep your eye in A lot of things depend on practice and visual assessment. If you don't do it for a while, it'll take you time to recover your ability to make judgements by eye. Extended by analogy to anything where you need constant practice (which is pretty well anything)

"Which is so blindingly obvious I don't understand why it needs to be in a saying."

All of these idiomatic phrases/proverbs are, pretty much definitionally, cliches.

If you can't do it then how can you fake it? You can either do it or you can't?

It usually refers to emotional things - like faking being happy or confident.

butter someone up......make me think Last Tango in Paris sorry

Thanks for explaining butter wouldn’t melt. Binary.

It’s an ill wind that blows no good means that when the winds of change come along, it might be hard for some, but others might benefit from a change in regime/ circumstances

No better than she ought to be...
my grandmother says this is what my grandpa ‘s family thought about her when they married, as she had served in the forces. They assumed she was not a virgin. I think it’s specifically about sex before marriage rather than promiscuity

I heard an expression for the first time in a movie 'Fighting windmills' meaning you are fighting imaginary friends...is this a US idioms or am I just being dense?

ok or it can be tilting windmills it is from don quixote interesting

My late grandmother used to say "he's a bugger up the back" usually when referring to her dog. I was only about 10 at the time and did not think anything much about it, but years later after she had died I was telling my family about it, who were horrified, and I realised what a very strange thing it was to say in front of a 10 year old (or anyone) She was always a bit of a "character" and I am sure she did not realise what she was saying (not that I am too sure myself even now). Has anyone else heard that expression before?

Something about the person who could bite a finger off. Like she or he is such a nice and quiet person but hey, don't be fooled as he/she will bite your finger off at the first opportunity. It's about people who pretend to be nicey-nicey and who can't hurt a fly.

"tilting at windmills" = trying to fight an imaginary foe. Don Quixote, who has read rather too many chivalrous romances, actually mistakes windmills for giants.

@lookingelsewhere - "Sweet FA" has grisly origins. Read about that years ago - Do I/should I google these grisly origins or will I be scarred for life!?

@Whistl ''Chester draws - hahaha!

Oh and I definitely have too much of a sweet tooth- I have always heard risk it for a chocolate biscuit

DontMakeMeShushYou
“all fur coat and nae knickers” refers to choosing to buy luxuries but then being unable to afford the basics

It definitely doesn't mean that. It means what Littlecaf said - outwardly classy but totally common underneath.

Thank you, good to know!

Someone had said in a book "Your mother is all lace curtains and nothing in the pantry" and I took the other to be a more well-used version of this

For anyone interested in all this kind of thing, can I thoroughly recommend 'Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'. First published in 1870 and regularly updated, it lists hundreds, maybe thousands of expressions and odd phrases and explains them. It's still in print (and on the shelves of most public libraries). This is an Amazon link (sorry) to a very cheap second-hand copy but it's available, as the saying goes, 'in all good bookshops'.

www.amazon.co.uk/Brewers-Dictionary-Phrase-Fable-Adrian/dp/0304350966/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_1?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&refRID=NTB6NB5HWA7D55P6YE0A