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Post by 溪山 on Mar 16, 2019 22:17:00 GMT -5
读英文时看到某个字/词组，会对自己说，这就是中文的。。。。 1. fall by the wayside ---- 半途而废 “半途而废” from 中文字典: give up halfway; do a thing by halves; leave sth. unfinished fall by the wayside
If someone falls by the wayside, they fail in something they are doing and give up trying to succeed in it. Players either perform well and deal with the pressure, or fall by the wayside. Only about half of this group will graduate. The rest will fall by the wayside. Note: You can also say that someone falls by the way. Various team members have fallen by the way over the years. from: idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fall+by+the+wayside |
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Post by 忘言忘语 on Mar 20, 2019 6:01:39 GMT -5
Excellent indeed!
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Post by 溪山 on Mar 21, 2019 0:26:52 GMT -5
Look forward to learning more idioms from the walking dictionary!  |
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Post by 溪山 on Mar 21, 2019 0:36:13 GMT -5
fly in the face of .... 当面抗争, 公然对抗
wiki:
To act in a manner highly contrary to; to counteract or contradict.
The new design is very edgy and certainly flies in the face of tradition.
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Post by 溪山 on Mar 21, 2019 0:37:42 GMT -5
make the money fly --- 散财， 烧钱。 ：）
乱花钱, 挥金如土 （字典）
千金散尽还复来
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Post by 边 草 on Mar 21, 2019 8:33:40 GMT -5
Indeed. When seeing the sentence of "pull the chestnuts out of the fire", I was like: oh my god, it's exactly "火中取栗" in Chinese.
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Post by 溪山 on Mar 22, 2019 0:42:51 GMT -5
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Post by 溪山 on Mar 24, 2019 13:02:35 GMT -5
cook
1. You are cooked.
exhausted, finished, destroyed, in serious trouble. drunk
你完了，有麻烦了，累了，醉了
2. cook one's goose
To interfere with, disrupt, or ruin something for someone. News of my involvement in this scandal will cook my goose for sure.
同中文的“鸡飞蛋打”，“作茧自缚” 有点类似？
3. too many cooks spoil the broth
If too many people try to control, influence, or work on something, the final product will be worse as a result.
A: "We've got my boss, his boss, the assistant manager, a freelance consultant, and the head of IT all involved in this project, and it's turning into a complete disaster!"
B: "Well, too many cooks spoil the broth, after all!"
三个和尚没水喝？
(英文摘自网上字典）
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Post by 溪山 on Apr 13, 2019 20:10:24 GMT -5
听来的：
1. He who pays the piper calls the tune. 谁有钱谁做主。
2. go for the jugular. 击中要害
3. mop the floor with someone. 把。。。打得一败涂地
4. knock (blow) sth/sb out of water 打得落花流水， 彻底击败
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Post by 溪山 on Apr 17, 2019 0:38:22 GMT -5
1. hold one's water， hold one's horse. 耐心点，沉住气
2. hold water (理论，借口等）滴水不漏，无懈可击； hold no water. 有漏洞，站不住脚
3. flash in the pan. 昙花一现
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Post by 溪山 on Apr 17, 2019 0:47:19 GMT -5
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Post by 边 草 on Apr 17, 2019 9:06:39 GMT -5
"snail oil salesman"? interesting.
I was listening to a podcast on the way to work this morning when the words of "water off duck's back" caught my ears. With the subject the host was talking about, my interpretation would be "水过鸭被" in Chinese. Actually, there is an entry of "水过鸭被" in 百度.
Same description like "teflon president" were used in Reagan/Clinton eras. The following paragraph is from the Urban Dictionary:
A president who manages to remain popular and continues to get elected, despite scandal surrounding the administration or general dissatisfaction with government in general. Examples include Reagan, Clinton, and Bush II. Iran-contra? It slides right off the Teflon president. Monica Lewinsky? Impeachment, maybe, but the polls don't look too bad for this Teflon president.
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Post by 溪山 on Apr 18, 2019 2:18:16 GMT -5
"water off a duck's back" caught my ears. With the subject the host was talking about, my interpretation would be "水过鸭被" --- wonderful interpretation! you have a good ear for idioms. thank you for sharing, mr. Grass. be (like) water off a duck's back ---- if criticism is water off a duck's back to someone, it has no effect on them at all.
more duck idioms: fle135-idioms.pbworks.com/w/page/5905542/Idioms-with-Duck1. get your ducks in a row ： to organize things well 有条有理 The government talks about tax changes but they won't fix a date or an amount - they just can't get their ducks in a row 2. as a duck takes to water： very naturally; without effort 如鱼得水 The little boy started to swim just as a duck takes to water. 3. Lord love a duck! 天哪！ An exclamation of surprise, shock, frustration, exasperation, anger, alarm, or annoyance. Lord love a duck! If we'd stopped the car one second later that train would have hit us! |
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Post by 溪山 on Apr 19, 2019 0:45:49 GMT -5
prima donna 爱当主角的女人？ A prima donna is a diva: someone who acts like they are the star of the show. If you tirelessly dominate the conversation and always interrupt when other people are talking, people will think you're a prima donna. Prima donna is a term that comes from the Opera, and literally means first woman, in Italian. Because the ladies that starred in operas were often egotistical, demanding, and flamboyant, the term prima donna came to mean anyone who acted as if they were a world-famous talent. The term is not an insult if you're talking about an actual opera star, but if anyone else is called a prima donna, it means they're terribly vain. www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/prima%20donna
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Post by 溪山 on May 4, 2019 0:47:12 GMT -5
“May is strutting her stuff everywhere.” --- from my artist friend
strut one's stuff , to dress, behave, perform, etc., one's best in order to impress others; show off. -- dictionary
炫耀，显摆 ：）
Happy spring!
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Post by 溪山 on Jul 13, 2019 0:59:07 GMT -5
猴年马月 zt: 1. till/until the cows come home for a very long time They'll be arguing about this till the cows come home. cow idioms: idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cow2. donkey's ears / donkey's years / in donkeys An exceptionally long period of time. The phrase likely originated as rhyming slang, where "ears" rhymes with "years" and alludes to the length of a donkey's ears. Throughout time, it became more popularized as "donkey's years." I haven't seen Jim in donkey's ears! How's he doing these days? It's been donkey's ears since we last got together like this. donkey idioms: idioms.thefreedictionary.com/donkey |
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Post by 边 草 on Aug 21, 2019 12:04:47 GMT -5
Brought a few tomatoes to work today. During the lunch break, a coworker commented "you have green thumbs". I said, why is thumb not the fingers? (绿手指) He said I don't know. Then I googled and found this: Q: Why is an ability to grow plants called “a green thumb” in the US and “green fingers” in the UK? A: Both expressions showed up in writing in the 20th century, “green fingers” first and “green thumb” a few decades later, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Similarly, “green fingered” appeared first, followed by “green thumbed.” We’ve found “thumb” and “fingers” examples in both American and British writing, but a good gardener generally has “a green thumb” in the US and “green fingers” in the UK, according to the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. We think the written evidence clearly indicates that the original expression was “green fingers,” though F. E. L. Priestley, a language scholar at the University of Toronto, has suggested that “a green thumb” may have come first. In A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional Language (2006), Eric Partridge quotes Priestley, one of his correspondents, as saying, “I think the original was ‘a green thumb,’ probably by analogy with the miller’s ‘golden thumb’ (as in Chaucer).” www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2017/09/green-thumb-green-fingers.html |
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Post by 溪山 on Aug 22, 2019 23:40:53 GMT -5
Interesting discussion! Thanks a lot for sharing.
brown thumb (plural brown thumbs) 棕手指， 点金成土 (idiomatic) Lack of skill at growing plants; something possessed by a poor gardener. I have a terrible brown thumb. I could probably kill silk flowers. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brown_thumb#English
Midas touch/ golden touch 金手指， 点石成金an uncanny ability for making money in every venture Midas was a legendary king of Phrygia (in modern-day Turkey). In return for a good deed, he was granted one wish by the god Dionysus, and asked for the power to turn everything he touched into gold. When he discovered to his horror that his touch had turned his food and drink—and even his daughter—to gold, he begged Dionysus to take back the gift, and Dionysus agreed to do so. When "Midas touch" is used today, the moral of this tale of greed is usually ignored. www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Midas%20touch迈达斯（古希臘語：Μίδας，又译作“米达斯”、“弥达斯”），希腊神话中的弗里吉亚国王，故又称“迈达斯王”或“迈达斯国王”，以巨富著称；关于他点石成金的故事非常有名。 The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch. zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%88%E8%BE%BE%E6%96%AFen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midas |
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Post by 溪山 on Aug 22, 2019 23:41:47 GMT -5
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Post by 溪山 on Aug 22, 2019 23:50:03 GMT -5
play good cop/bad cop 扮白/黑脸
"Good cop/bad cop" routine, also called Mutt and Jeff, joint questioning or friend and foe, is a psychological tactic used in negotiation and interrogation.[2] "Good cop/bad cop" tactics involve a team of two interrogators who take apparently opposing approaches to the subject. The interrogators may interview the subject alternately or may confront the subject at the same time.
--- wiki
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Post by Immanuel on Aug 29, 2019 21:30:59 GMT -5
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Post by 溪山 on Aug 31, 2019 0:32:32 GMT -5
interesting to know these "funny origins". i say "sleep tight" every night to my dear daughters; now i know its origin. 8. Sleep tight Meaning: Sleep well Origin: This likely stems from the days when mattresses were supported by ropes. Telling someone to sleep tight meant you hoped the ropes were pulled tight, which would mean a well-supported bed for them overnight. |
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Post by 边 草 on Sept 2, 2019 18:12:25 GMT -5
"Chicken coming home to roost." As a proverbial expression, this is half a millennium old. The older fuller form was curses are like chickens; they always come home to roost, meaning that your offensive words or actions are likely at some point to rebound on you. The idea goes back to Chaucer, though he expressed it rather differently in The Parson’s Tale, around 1390, writing that curses are like “a bird that returns again to his own nest”. This expression is also similar to "what goes around, comes around" and basically means that the consequences of one's evil actions catch up in a negative way. www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-chi4.htm |
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Post by 溪山 on Sept 3, 2019 0:46:32 GMT -5
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Post by 边 草 on Sept 3, 2019 10:57:19 GMT -5
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Post by 边 草 on Sept 3, 2019 11:08:07 GMT -5
A commercial diving boat was ravaged by flames under a dark sky before dawn on Monday near the coast of Santa Barbara, California. The mayday call released this morning. "Mayday" got its start as an international distress call in 1923. It was made official in 1948. It was the idea of Frederick Mockford, who was a senior radio officer at Croydon Airport in London. He came up with the idea for “mayday" because it sounded like the French word m'aider, which means “help me." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayday |
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Post by 溪山 on Sept 4, 2019 1:22:08 GMT -5
thank you Mr. Grass for sharing!
such a sad tragedy. i was on a boat excursion in the Channel Islands area some years ago.
m'aider: me aid (aid me) --- i guess? i know no French.
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Post by 边 草 on Sept 5, 2019 7:36:51 GMT -5
Goldfish memory or elephant memory? To have the memory of a goldfish Figurative meaning: To have a very poor memory; to forget quickly. Literal meaning: This phrase alludes to the idea that goldfish have very short memories. Example: “He’s always forgetting my birthday. I swear he has the memory of a goldfish!” Other forms: To have a goldfish’s memory aussieenglish.com.au/fish-idioms-2/#targetText=To%20have%20the%20memory%20of,goldfish%20have%20very%20short%20memories. "An elephant never forgets" is a saying, so if a person has a memory like an elephant, he or she has a very good memory indeed. |
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Post by 溪山 on Sept 6, 2019 23:07:27 GMT -5
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Post by 边 草 on Sept 20, 2019 7:54:55 GMT -5
heard a sentence of "scales have fallen from our eyes" this morning, did not quite understand its meaning and origin, etc. googled and found this:
To have the scales fall from his/her eyes means that he/she has learned the truth, or realized he/she had a misconception.
Origin:
In Acts 9:18 in the New King James Version of the Bible, it records how a man (Saul, who is later renamed Paul) is blinded by intense light. A Christian man (Ananias) was sent by God to visit him and restore his sight.
It records that when Ananias touched him, scales fell from his eyes. This may have been cataracts or some other growth. Up until this point, Saul had been a persecutor of the Christians, but at the time that the scales fell from his eyes, he converted to Christianity.
Thus this term has now come to be figurative, meaning that a misconception has been righted.
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