To have completely misunderstood the meaning of some sayings?

[KermitTheToad]

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!

you can take the whore to culture but you can't make her think...
(Dorothy Parker)

Oh I have a FANTASTIC one for this. Forgive me but spirituality had never been my thing.
I was in my early 20’s when I realised a Clairvoyant wasn’t a person. I just thought she was a really famous psychic called Claire Voyant. Like Derek Acorah. I still laugh about it.

Google tells me that the term Catch 22 originated from the 1961 novel Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, describing a military rule where a pilot could be grounded for being insane, but any pilot who requested to be grounded [because pf the danger] was proving they were sane and therefore had to continue flying.

edit: [my addition]

Lucked out literally means the opposite to how it sounds (to me).

Swings and roundabouts / six of one half a dozen of the other / same difference.

They're different but ultimately the same.

Catch 22 is when the thing you're trying to do is the thing that stops you doing it.

Like not being able to get a loan because you have no credit history.

I thought it meant someone tanned or rugged looking as in not pale and pasty.

Spendthrift is understandable I think.

As a child, I was puzzled by the 'No Waiting' signs that appeared by roads in London. They meant, 'No stopping even for a short time to wait for someone' ; but I thought that the signs were really naughty and telling people that they shouldn't be patient and wait for things!

I knew someone who was really puzzled by the story of Abraham Lincoln writing the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. Surely the back of an envelope was the normal place to write an address (this was when we only had snailmail), so why was it treated as special that he did so?

I have noticed that 'begging the question' is almost never used correctly.

I agree about bucolic, it sounds like a nasty stomach virus.

See also pulchritude. Sounds like something putrid and repulsive but means "beauty".

I also think emasculate sounds wrong. It sounds like someone is made super-masculine rather than less so.

I have noticed a lot of people using "fulsome" to mean genuine high praise but it actually means praise which is insincere.

As I child I didn't properly understand "many hands make light work". I envisaged lots of people reaching up and putting their hands on a light bulb and it lighting up.

I was also confused by "life is but a dream" in Row row row your boat. I thought it was Butterdream and decided that it must be like a butterfly.

When younger I made my mate a birthday card with ‘fair weather friend’ written on the front. Thinking that meant the term represented a friend who brings sunshine to your life, happy, warm vibes. When really I was unwittingly and very passive-aggressively slagging her off 😬

He was wasteful

and a golden boy- because he was forgiven all his misdeeds, ie he got away with it all!

It actually means both. So both the PP and her friend were correct.

Lawyers have to show their transcripts for jobs in the early years. Guess it’s time for an apology?

I met someone who was terribly confused by the hymn lines 'O my spirit longs and faints/ For the converse of Thy saints.' She came from a mathematical family and understood 'converse' in its mathematical sense (roughly 'the opposite') and she couldn't understand how such a sentiment got into a hymn!

'Salubrious' is one of those words which I feel is 'onomatopoeically' very different to it's real meaning.

I know someone who thought it was 'Life is down the drain' - the Pessimist's Anthem?

It is.

Isnt it more like, you cant properly assess something until you use it for it's intended purpose?
In this case the pudding is intended as a source of gustatory pleasure and so the ultimate test of it's merit, the proof of how good it is, will be when it is consumed.

I hate to break it to you, but you were right in the first place!

I have seen positions where they ask for a full transcript

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Made me laugh! Im 54 and ALWAYS think 'ooh watch out for triffids' when I see heavy plant crossing!
Also getting an education tonight. Ibe never really thought about spendthrift but would totally agree with OPs definition! It really doesn't make sense!

I live about as far from anything cockney that you can get and people here say "it looks like a bomb's hit it" to describe a mess.