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!

Yes I really didn’t ever understand it when this was explained to us in school. It got me so confused. So the moral is you don’t need to do the right thing, you can be a selfish prick, be a take, take, take, kind of person, not bother having anything to do with your family, then come back and get treated with even more enthusiasm than the good ole faithful sibling who stuck around all the time? Lesson: go out and life your life completely selfishly and no-one will care. Very Christian attitude.

absolute pish and even at the age of 8 or so really cemented in my mind that all religion is a load of made up nonsense.

When I was a child I used to think the lyrics in "Hakuna Matata" where they sing "It's a problem free philosophy" was "There's lots of bees" 😂 it sounded like that to me and I figured its a film about animals so of course there's probably a lot of bees around, makes sense!

"Off his own bat" used to refer to the runs a batsman scored by hitting the ball, as opposed to "extras" like byes or wides that weren't the result of their hitting.
Nowadays it usually means doing something without being asked or prompted by someone.

Even though I know how to pronounce it I don't recall ever saying it out loud!

@PicklesandPreserves did you also enjoy Camury chocolate?

It's a perfect description of many aspects of modern life, work hard, live within your means and so on then be expected to support the feckless who choose not to work and are happy to leech off society. I recall getting told off in Sunday School for saying it was a swizz and that was a long time ago so it's not so new maybe.

Or dialling a number. In my late MIL's house you did 'pull the chain' but only at a certain angle otherwise it didn't work. Some NT properties have chain pulling lavatories, the never have loos or toilets in NT properties!

@soupyspoon

That's made me realise why I had such difficulty hearing what Radio 4 presenters were saying after the election. They kept talking about "Sikyst Arma"

I still have to think about it.

Same with 'hit the hay'...

I did, however, think there was a place I used to drive through called 'Weak Bridge'....

I remember that, ages ago, I did a Chinese menu for our book club (we'd read a book by Xinran) and made fortune cookies with ersatz Confucius-style sayings in them. One was "Swinging chain indicate warm seat".

I fondly remember Jade Goody saying everyone had made her the escape goat.

My one is cat burglar. I imagined people stuffing pet cats into rucksacks and selling them on 😂

It means both.

You can also have a roast dinner with 'all the trimmings'.

No not turned him away obviously. The father can still love the son and forgive him and be happy to see him back. But not treated him better than the sons who worked hard and did the right thing. Sets a terrible example. Try that with your own kids. See how that works out for the good ones.

That's the Bible story I feel isn't 100% useful vis a vis parenting tips.

Missed heard

You’ve misheard misheard! 😂.

Has the worm turned?

Just five minutes ago I learnt the phrase is ‘to the manner born’ not ‘to the manor born’. I’ve only just realised the name of that 1970s sitcom was a pun!

Should have.

I used to pronounce awkward as ah-walked in my head, and wonder what on earth it meant.

Oh I was the same in my first job. I just thought they were very expensive plants and that’s why only the maintenance man was allowed in

Built like a brick shithouse 😉🤣

Some people don't understand ironing!😧

😱😱😱😱😱😱!!!

A friend of mine got into an argument with a taxi office over "Nothrough Road".

Your definition is not what that saying means.