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!

I've only ever heard "it's all downhill from here" used as a negative @LilyCanna

Every day is a school day

Yes and it drives me nuts when people say "the proof is in the pudding" because what!? Is this a reference to a Poirot I don't know, where the vital clue has ended up in some kind of dessert?

Don't get me started on not comdemning a whole group because " it's just a few bad apples". The saying is "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel" - meaning that yes, you must indeed chuck the whole lot because they are ALL contaminated.* *

@Butteredtoast55 I work in healthcare and a colleague actually wrote “rest bite’ in a communication about a patient fairly recently.

Its a dark haired man regardless of race, think Tom selleck he's tall dark and handsome 💋

Reading property details I was delighted to see some houses had plant rooms. How lovely I thought a room just for house plants, like a craft room for crafts. Nope it's where your heating boiler is housed. A bit like this.

You're right @CryMyEyesViolet , in my dictionary it lists both meanings earthquake start point and the central point of something

I still dont know what 'heavy plant crossing ' means....

I blame donny osmonds song with one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch for this . I grow apples and can confirm one bad apple will rot the rest

I’ve never heard of the word hegemony before - I’ve just had to look it up. That sounds like a very hard exam indeed - sorry you couldn’t get the support 💐

"Hoist by your own petard" is from Hamlet

A friend always said if people were giggling "Oh, they're in cahoots! " or "Sue was in cahoots when I told her that funny story! "

Oh I love it! I think that actually works quite well!! 🤣

A social butterfly is the big colorful attention stealing person in the room, its the same as 'peacocking' both phrases refer to how noticeable the creatures are for their markings in relation to how noticeable the person is in the gathering.

I have never heard the phrase Spendthrift, actually wouldn't know what it meant.

I still think 'tender hooks' makes sense, like the S shape hooks butchers hang meet on to tenderize it (which are now very popular in homes now for hanging things, we have several on our clothes rail so we dont have to faff with hangers), where as whose ever heard of, or used the very outdated item of a 'tenterhook'. Both do essentially a very similar job of hanging and stretching things (just one uses gravity). I would be much more scared of being hung on a butcher 'tender hook' than on a wood frame to stop washed material shrinking.

Don't get me started on not comdemning a whole group because " it's just a few bad apples". The saying is "one bad apple spoils the whole barrel" - meaning that yes, you must indeed chuck the whole lot because they are ALL contaminated.

I'm with you on this @PuggyPuggyPuggy

Actually lol’ed at this and now I so want a dance settee in my house!

I thought a social butterfly was someone who flitted about in lots of different social groups and had lots of friends. Possibly not deep friendships. But lots of them.

The most irritating one for me is 'the proof is in the pudding'. Apart from the fact it's wrong, it makes no sense.

'Heavy' refers to 'Heavy machinery' (diggers, dumpers, lorries, cranes etc...)

'Plant' refers to an 'industrial work zone' (like how you have 'nuclear plants' etc...)

'Crossing' refers to 'pulling out on the road to cross' (like a pedestrian crossing etc...)

It basically means 'WARNING: look out for massive machines that could crush you but might not see you due to being massive and having blinds spots because they are driving around here'.

A couple of people have vouched for me on this. I don’t appreciate being called a liar. You’ve shown yourself up as being pretty ignorant, and your comment which was deleted was also pretty crass. Talk about bringing the tone down on what is a fun thread. I’m so over this mentality on MN. I would like an apology, but chance is a fine thing. Have a good day!

Yes. A petard is a little bomb that they used to blow up walls in sieges in medieval times, definitely not Biblical-era tech. But the concept is an old one I imagine.

I am fascinated by the different interpretations of "a friend in need...". I had only ever heard the nice one (when you're really struggling and a friend helps you, that's a very good friend) but I am enjoying the more cynical interpretation as that can be true too!

"Spendthrift" does make sense, or it used to. "Thrift" originally meant "wealth" so it just means someone who spends what they've got instead of saving it.

Love a bit of midweek etymology

Or even "misheard" it 😉

I thought social butterfly meant super sociable but also unreliable because they are always flitting between friends and social occasions.

Yes, you have misunderstood epicentre. The epicentre of an earthquake is the point on the earth's surface directly above the earthquake. The point of origin of the earthquake is the hypocentre. Epicentre of the drugs trade makes no sense. It is just journalists trying to add a false sense of drama to a situation.

It's really, really, not.

“But squids are damp” my daughter said to me when I told her that “damp squid” is incorrect.