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!

But surely thrift is a positive attribute?

Thrifty is the adjective. It doesn't mean tight, mean, miserly etc. It means being careful with money, not spending unnecessarily, trying always to have something put by. Spendthrifts may regard this as boring and negative but most of us surely just see it as sensible.

Until recently I thought the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool where they go on Strictly was up the Blackpool Tower rather than at the bottom. Like they have a restaurant up the Eiffel Tower. I can see there is a room at the top of the Blackpool Tower with windows. I'm not sure what's in it, but the Tower Ballroom would probably be too heavy.

I always understood you either give them a carrot to encourage them, or a stick to beat them. It’s their choice whether they would do something willingly (ie carrot) or would need the threat of punishment (or actual punishment) to do the job.

I found out from my adult offspring that when they were children, they thought I often randomly dropped equine copulation into conversations. The phrase I actually used was "horses for courses".

We have a family friend who has English as a second language. He was absolutely horrified when his father in law used that phrase at the table in a restaurant. How dare you use such language in front of my wife, my children. It took them a while to unpick what had caused his shock.

Equine copulation?

For a moment there I was expecting your phrase to be 'hung like a donkey'.😂

Absolutely does not mean a POC. Your first answer was correct. Who on earth told you differently?

Horses for courses. Say it out loud.

Is this an accent thing as I don't get it either.

It sounds a bit like “Horses fuck horses”.

Horses

For-c-ourses

Neither DH or I can hear that in our accents.

God know lived all over UK and how words are pronunciation varies wildly - so expect it's that.

I have been told I have a boring home counties accent @CatHairEveryWhereNow and I can hear it if I say it quickly. If you stress 'for' then it doesn't work. In conversation humans blend words into each other.

We don't have home county accents - lived there for a bit but also lived in northen cities and now wales - and we both have very different raised with midland accents even dialects.

Blending the for still doesn't make it work in our accents - wouldn't be shocked if it worked in more than a few others accents though - just not ours.

I have a school memory - our accent doesn't sound nothern like DH midland accent does - but to this teacher with a southern accent got extremely frustrated we couldn't see a poems rhyme pattern - because in our accent it didn't rhyme. Once pointed out we could hear it - we live near sound border of long a and short a sounds and were used to hearing both but it had to be pointed out to us as just read it naturally it didn't work.

It works in my accent as I contract For to "fuh"

Yes. I know. Sorry if my own joke passed you by.

I am happy to be corrected but I also thought it was "Tow the line"
As in all pull together/ pull in the same direction to get the desired result the same as
'All work to one goal / objective' like using a tow rope to move a car or barge

Can you explain how/ what "Toe the line " means

@DeanStockwell - I believe "toe the line" originates from Parliament - you can actually see lines drawn in front of the benches in the House of Commons, and I think the idea is that you keep your foot behind that line, so you are at least two sword lengths apart from your opponent. So you keep debate within the rules and don't resort to physical violence to beat your opponent.

And Wikipedia tells me I've fallen for a myth... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toe_the_line

@RescueMeFromThisSilliness

Ooops, I clearly misinterpreted your post - although others are clearly baffled.

I was - we were sounding out here thinking wtf are they on about.

Oh no I like ‘borne aloft by his own fart’ for ‘hoist by his own petard’ always thought that petard was french for fart? Too much of a hurry to check

Nonplussed is a bit like spendthrift. People seem to think it means unbothered when it actually means surprised or bewildered.

I was half way through you post and was going to break it to you that you had been lied to but I see you have found that out yourself. Apparently there are written uses of the phrase dating to a time before parliament had lines on the floor.

Yes, normally I would go away and google to check carefully whether what I'd heard was actually valid, but I got too tempted by the desire to be the first to answer! I'll let it stand as a demonstration of how easily these false ideas get perpetuated.