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!

Your friend is incorrect

No, the “in need” refers to you. A friend who is still your friend when you are in need is a good friend. It’s the opposite of a fair weather friend.

Apparently he liked how it sounded - nothing deeper than that. He was originally going to go with Catch18 but there was another novel published the same year called Mila 18

I can vouch for this. I also have a low mark that that haunted me for years. Take heart though: at over a decade PQE no one even asks if I have a degree anymore.

Wow...and I did English Lit A level! A lot of my knowledge on words etc comes from my Mum who, as a librarian really loved books and words but not Shakespeare I realise!

A petard is actually a type of small bomb used in Elizabethan times to blow up walls and gates. “Hoist by his own petard” is from Hamlet. It means being blown up by a bomb you were trying to blow up something else with.

This made me smile. When I was growing up, any time my parents saw one of those signs while in the car they would shout ‘oh no! Triffids!’ And burst out laughing. They knew what it meant, but had the same visual image when they saw the sign and obviously made each other laugh. Now as an adult I can’t see one of those signs without thinking the same and also thinking of my late DM.

I don’t think this is right. I think it’s the opposite: the cottage looks small from the outside but that’s deceptive - it’s actually spacious. So deceptively small = larger than it first seems.

Otherwise there’s no deception.

I’ve always had exactly this same thought and every time I use the phrase I have to stop and think hard to make sure I say it correctly. “Suspend belief” still makes a lot more sense to me.

My ex MIL thought "french stick".was "french dick"

For years we didn't even realise because it sounds the same...

Spendthrift doesn't mean that. It means the opposite!

Love "a piece of quiet"!

It wont be in the dictionary!!!

Its colloquial (not even sure if Ive got the meaning of that right now)

But if I am the friend in need, how can I also be the friend indeed, if the friend indeed is my friend who is being a good friend?

Surely a friend in need, has a friend indeed, if indeed, they have a friend?

I sympathise. Years ago I sat the Institute of Linguists diploma in German. One exam was about Germany itself. It could be on absolutely anything - politics, economy, culture, history etc. You had to be prepared for anything. From memory there were ten essay questions two to be answered in English and one in German. I was already struggling because my tutor had disappeared and I’d had to prepare solo. When I looked at the questions there were some I knew nothing about, so I had to answer one about the German hegemony. It was at that point that I realised my difficulty wasn’t just my level of German, but my level of English. Hegemony was a word I had come across every so often and just glided over without ever stopping to check what it meant. I’m fairly certain my level of English contributed to my failing that paper, which was annoying as I had a distinction in other papers. As I was only doing it for interest and couldn’t find anyone to teach me I gave up on trying again.

Same here!

I love this one!

I'm confused now about this... I think I understood it to be @Twattergy 's way. If the house is deceptively large it is larger than it seemed, ie it seems smaller from outside. So still a deception. I think its usually a positive thing if something is deceptively large and a negative if deceptively small. It seems then phrase is meaningless if people understand it differently, I'll always be overthinking this now.

Hoist by your own peloton when you slip and whack your crotch on it!

I don't understand how this is different to what I said?

Yes they do, and some other legal jobs do too. It’s not bollocks :)

Someone I worked with (French) thought the phrase ‘can’t be arsed’ was ‘can’t be asked’ and had been using it in meetings! Legitimately as in ‘I can’t be asked to do that, as my workload does not allow’. We didn’t find out until she relayed a meeting to us and corrected her. This was for a big corporate - can imagine their faces in the meetings - would definitely have sounded like ‘can’t be arsed’ 🤣

It means that a friend who sticks by you when you are in need, is indeed a good friend. As PP said, it’s the opposite of a fairweather friend, who drops you when you’re doing it tough.

I thought it was a “dance settee” when I was a kid 😆

Ok, I’ll have a go! It means that the answer isn’t a real answer; the answer just sends you back to your original question, or assumes the truth that you’re trying to demonstrate.

For example, Q. Why is it illegal to commit murder? A. You mustn’t commit murder because it’s against the law.

Q. Why do I have to go to bed at 9? A. Because that’s your bedtime.

Lots of people use “begs the question” incorrectly to mean “prompts the question” eg in an interview “I studied at uni for 4 years.” “That prompts the question, have you done any postgrad study?”

I agree. A large house that appears small is large.
It is large in a deceptive way.