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Post by 溪山 on Oct 9, 2020 23:22:45 GMT -5
(as) clean as a hound's tooth
1. Very clean; spotless.
This house needs to be clean as a hound's tooth before Pop comes to visit.
2. Reputable and honest; free of wrongdoing.
Oh, Donny is very trustworthy—his behavior has always been as clean as a hound's tooth.
Spotlessly clean. This proverbial simile, current from about 1900, is as puzzling as one of its fifteenth-century antecedents, “clene as a byrdes ars.” The teeth of hounds are no cleaner than those of other carnivores, but therein may lie the source of the saying, that is, “clean” here may first have meant “sharp.” By the 1950s, however, when it was being applied to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, it meant clean in a more conventional figurative sense, that is, free of corruption.
(zt)
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Post by 溪山 on Oct 9, 2020 23:25:48 GMT -5
clean as a whistle 意思与 clean as a hound's tooth 类似。
zt: (as) clean as a whistle
1. Neat and tidy in appearance.
This house needs to be as clean as a whistle before my mother-in-law gets here.
2. Well-behaved and not involved in illegal or questionable activities.
You can trust George, he's a good kid—as clean as a whistle.
I don't have a criminal record, I'm clean as a whistle.
3. Entirely; totally.
The handle just broke off, clean as a whistle! I can't believe it!
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Post by 溪山 on Oct 9, 2020 23:38:13 GMT -5
President Trump Getting ‘Kitchen Sink' Approach to Treat COVID-19, San Diego Doctor Says“It’s been a little bit of a kitchen sink approach, really getting everything that’s available, and the dexamethasone really does indicate that the disease might be a little more severe than we’re hearing," said Ramers. everything but the kitchen sink / kitchen sink approach 套中国的“应/能收尽收”,能用尽用。。。。 Nearly everything one can reasonably imagine; many different things, often to the point of excess or redundancy. We were only going to be camping for two nights, but she still insisted on bringing everything but the kitchen sink along with us.
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Post by 边 草 on Oct 17, 2020 11:08:54 GMT -5
out of the mouth of babe an wise head on young shoulder Can't find anything close to those in Chinese, but what about 人小鬼大?
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Post by 溪山 on Oct 17, 2020 17:00:22 GMT -5
"人小鬼大", nice rendition! a wise head on young shoulders / an old head on young shoulders 或者“少年老成” Old head on young shoulders 少年老成另一個包含「肩膀」這個詞兒的短語 'head and shoulders above the rest', 意思是遠遠超出或大大高於。 Martin's idea for a documentary film really was head and shoulders above the others. That's why they decided to commission him. --- zt
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Post by 特斯拉 on Oct 23, 2020 16:12:24 GMT -5
out of the mouth of babe an wise head on young shoulder Can't find anything close to those in Chinese, but what about 人小鬼大? 少年老成is better than 人小鬼大,I think.
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 11, 2020 22:29:28 GMT -5
"A stitch in time saves nine": meaning make a little effort to fix something small before it gets larger and more of a problem.
小洞不补,大洞吃苦
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 13, 2020 1:19:07 GMT -5
笑岔气?
keep (one) in stitches: To continue to make one laugh hysterically or uproariously. The stand-up comic kept the audience in stitches from beginning to end. My friend Michael always gets into the wackiest adventures, and his stories never fail to keep me in stitches.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 13, 2020 1:23:46 GMT -5
"succeed" or "secede"? I was in stitches when reading it.
Mississippi legislator apparently floats secession after Biden victory: reportA Republican state lawmaker in Mississippi apparently floated the idea of secession after President-elect Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, The Washington Post reports. State Rep. Price Wallace (R) said Mississippi should "succeed from the union,” with the misspelled comment coming in response to a Twitter thread from fellow GOP state Rep. Robert Foster, the Post reported.
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Post by 特斯拉 on Nov 13, 2020 10:16:52 GMT -5
笑岔气? keep (one) in stitches: To continue to make one laugh hysterically or uproariously. The stand-up comic kept the audience in stitches from beginning to end. My friend Michael always gets into the wackiest adventures, and his stories never fail to keep me in stitches. I have no way to come up with this, but will keep "keep me in stitches" in mind whenever talking to someone who appears to be funny. Thanks.
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Post by rovi297 on Nov 13, 2020 19:44:56 GMT -5
跑步有时跑快了会岔气就叫 get stitches ....keep one in stitches --- 笑得肚子疼...岔气了,哈哈哈
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 14, 2020 2:17:15 GMT -5
哈哈, 我好像曾经跑岔气过。 See if the jokes below can keep you guys in stitches. You know your getting older when... 1. You and your teeth don't sleep together. 2. Your try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren't wearing any. 3. At the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, pop and you're not eating cereal. 4. Your back goes out but you stay home. 5. When you wake up looking like your driver's license picture. 6. It takes two tries to get up from the couch. 7. When your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio. 8. When happy hour is a nap. 9. When you're on vacation and your energy runs out before your money does.. 10. When you say something to your kids that your mother said to you and you always hated it. 11. When all you want for your birthday is to not be reminded of your age. 12. When you step off a curb and look down one more time to make sure the street is still there. 13. Your idea of weight lifting is standing up. 14. It takes longer to rest than it did to get tired. 15. Your memory is shorter and your complaining lasts longer. 16. Your address book has mostly names that start with Dr. 17. You sit in a rocking chair and can't get it going. 18. The pharmacist has become your new best friend. 19. Getting 'lucky' means you found your car in the parking lot. 20. The twinkle in your eye is merely a reflection from the sun on your bifocals. 21. It takes twice as long - to look half as good. 22. Everything hurts, and what doesn't hurt - doesn't work. 23. You look for your glasses for half an hour and they were on your head the whole time. 24. You sink your teeth into a steak - and they stay there. 25. You give up all your bad habits and still don't feel good. 26. You have more patience, but it is actually that you just don't care anymore. 27. You finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart. 28. You wonder how you could be over the hill when you don't even remember being on top of it. (zt)
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 15, 2020 0:16:26 GMT -5
out of the mouth of babe an wise head on young shoulder Can't find anything close to those in Chinese, but what about 人小鬼大? 少年老成is better than 人小鬼大,I think. something similar: Little pitchers have big ears. 人小耳朵长? Children hear everything, especially when you least expect them to. The "ear" of a water pitcher is the handle. Please watch what you say around the kids—little pitchers have big ears, you know. A: "Where did little Susie learn that inappropriate word?" B: "Who knows. Little pitchers have big ears."
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 15, 2020 8:40:57 GMT -5
I don't understand the meaning of #4 and question the tureness of #5. In terms of #6, I usually have to make 3 attempts nowadays to get up from couch. :-)
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 15, 2020 9:30:56 GMT -5
Do you guys know that the depth of grave is 6 feet in general? I don't. When my boss said to me that "let's put the project six feet under", I was like, what? So the phrase of "six feet" could be used as verb: 打入冷宫 or noun: 命染黄沙.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 15, 2020 20:26:46 GMT -5
"let's put the project six feet under" = let's kill the project. "打入冷宫" is a good rendition. six feet under: Dead and buried. (Six feet refers to the traditional depth of a grave.) You'll be six feet under when Mom finds out that you dented her brand new car. Fred died and is six feet under. They put him six feet under two days after he died. -- zt
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 15, 2020 20:32:02 GMT -5
I don't understand the meaning of #4 and question the tureness of #5. In terms of #6, I usually have to make 3 attempts nowadays to get up from couch. :-) 4. Your back goes out but you stay home. 你的背(扭伤了)动弹不得,你只好呆在家里。 身体某部位受伤, 不function, go out of place, 可以用go out: My knee went out. 类似于 The power went out. zt: Throwing out your back can cause the following symptoms: back stiffness that keeps you from moving well intense low back pain muscle spasms, or intense bouts of muscle tightening and relaxing problems maintaining good posture 5. When you wake up looking like your driver's license picture. 驾照照片通常怪怪的,玩笑话像mugshot. zt: Are you embarrassed by the photograph on your I.D. card or driver's license? Do you feel the photographer deliberately took a bad photo on purpose because they thought it was funny?
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 19, 2020 20:27:46 GMT -5
Do you guys know that the depth of grave is 6 feet in general? I don't. When my boss said to me that "let's put the project six feet under", I was like, what? So the phrase of "put something six feet" could be used as verb: 打入冷宫 or noun: 命染黄沙. put something on the back burner 暂缓,推迟 zt: on the back burner: Of a low priority; given less or little thought or attention; postponed or suspended. I think that painting the house should be on the back burner until we decide on what furniture we want to buy. I'm going to be putting work stuff on the back burner for a while after my son is born.
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 25, 2020 0:01:57 GMT -5
May you live in interesting times 宁为太平狗,不做乱世人
Evidence that the phrase was in use as early as 1936 is provided in a memoir written by Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, the British Ambassador to China in 1936 and 1937, and published in 1949. He mentions that before he left England for China in 1936, a friend told him of a Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 25, 2020 2:02:29 GMT -5
多谢边君分享!
冯梦龙小说,“寧為太平犬,莫作亂離人!”
北岛有诗,“在没有英雄的年代里,. 我只想做一个人。”
瘟疫肆虐的今天,平安即是福。“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
wiki: Despite being widely attributed as a Chinese curse, there is no known equivalent expression in Chinese. The nearest related Chinese expression translates as "Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos." (寧為太平犬,不做亂世人) The expression originates from Volume 3 of the 1627 short story collection by Feng Menglong, Stories to Awaken the World.
忙忙如喪家之犬,急急如漏網之魚。擔渴擔飢擔勞苦,此行誰是家鄉? 叫天叫地叫祖宗,惟願不逢韃虜。正是:寧為太平犬,莫作亂離人! -----冯梦龙:醒世恒言
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 25, 2020 13:27:13 GMT -5
Well, thank YOU for elaborating this thing. Here comes another one: "skin of its teeth". The sentence goes like this: "the democracy is survived by the skin of its teeth", I heard from the news while I was in my car.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 26, 2020 0:01:47 GMT -5
by the skin of your teeth 险些/几乎失败,幸免于难,勉强成功。。。。。
zt:
Meaning: barely manage to do something narrowly succeed in doing something manage to do something by the smallest margin
Example: We managed to complete the project on time by the skin of our teeth. After being chased by the police a long way, the criminal managed to escape by the skin of his teeth. He made the final cut off list of the university by the skin of his teeth.
Origin: This phrase first appeared in English in 1560 in the Geneva Bible, in Job 19:20. It provides a literal translation of the original Hebrew. Since teeth have no skin, the expression refers to the smallest possible measure.
Source: theidioms.com
Origin: (zt) Your teeth sometimes have a film on them, especially when you wake up in the morning. If you think of this film as "skin", then you can see that the "skin of your teeth" is thin indeed.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 26, 2020 0:05:11 GMT -5
Happy Thanksgiving!
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 26, 2020 11:07:49 GMT -5
It's true that one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach. And there is same principle behind the phenomenon that people buy more food when they're hungry. One example is that I'd buy rotisserie chicken from Costco only if I go there before lunch time. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 27, 2020 18:53:50 GMT -5
one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach / have eyes bigger than one's stomach 眼大肚小,眼馋肚饱 Talk about going to all-you-can-eat buffets.
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 29, 2020 7:35:33 GMT -5
it's bellwether, not "bell weather", people! (I am talking to myself!) :-)
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 29, 2020 17:08:38 GMT -5
wether: 阉羊; a bellwether: 领头羊,前导 wiki: A bellwether is a leader or indicator of trends. The term derives from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram (a wether) leading the flock of sheep. A shepherd could then note the movements of the flock by hearing the bell, even when the flock was not in sight.
A bellwether stock(领先股) is a stock believed to be a leading indicator of the direction of the economy or of a sector of the market or the market as a whole. Bellwether stocks are typically large-cap equities. When they report strong earnings, that may indicate the economy is strong.
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Post by 溪山 on Nov 29, 2020 17:22:33 GMT -5
zt: who will bell the cat: Who will undertake or agree to perform a risky, dangerous, or impossible job or task?
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听雨
Full Member
Posts: 221
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Post by 听雨 on Nov 30, 2020 16:35:23 GMT -5
zt: who will bell the cat: Who will undertake or agree to perform a risky, dangerous, or impossible job or task? 虎口拔牙?
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Post by 边 草 on Nov 30, 2020 17:10:08 GMT -5
it's bellwether, not "bell weather", people! (I am talking to myself!) :-) 英文就是这样学的,不过速度太慢了。在经济新闻里常常听到bellwether,我根据情景知道是什么意思,可脑子里想到的是“bell weather”,一直纳闷怎么样这样的表述。直到昨天早晨看到这bellwether,才想到查一下,果然。还好一直没有机会露馅,:-)
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