I Say

The English language is an interesting one and depending on where you live and who raised you, it can have entirely different ways of saying things. So, over the last several months, I've been collecting more "ways of saying things" and idioms.

There is a chance that some may be already in my collection, but those lists are so long already, I don't feel inclined to check them out. So, here we go. 

Clear as mud

Didn't bat an eye

Don't get your tail in a knot

Get off scot-free

Get the short end of the stick

Giving the cold shoulder

Got up on the wrong side of the bed

Grasping at straws

If the shoe fits, wear it

Jump at the chance

Muddy the waters

Nit-picking

Pipe down

Rain on my parade

Sticks in my craw

The straw that broke the camel's back

Thin as a rail

Wait for the other shoe to drop

What's bred in the bone, comes out in the flesh

Use your head to save your heels

Shoot Off Your Mouth...

 ...or shotgun as the case may be.

I've been hauling Zane to his trap shoot practice nearly every Monday, picking up the other two boys from school part of the time, and zipping over to Ravenna where practice is held. It's been an enjoyable part of my week. I always plan better when something extra is going on and it's a good chance to talk to the boys. 

"Seeings as how" they are kids, and I'm not very good at asking questions they want to answer, some days there is more chatting than others. Of course, cell phones can get in the way, but there are enough stories on that issue so I'm not going to get in it here. 

I would like to know how schools are run these days, but all school is to most kids a "necessary evil," there is not much information forthcoming from them. I do know that they think school lunch is not enough and disgusting. From pictures I've seen, it's true. 

Lynette took her lunch all through high school, because when she was a freshman, her class before lunch was so far away that by the time she got there, the good food was gone and all that was left was "lunch B" and the fast food options. All the nearly 1500 kids had lunch at the same time, there wasn't room in the cafeteria to seat them all, and juniors and seniors could leave campus for lunch without needing a parent sign off, which led to a number of other problems not the least of which was several hundred kids wandering around fairly busy streets to find a place to eat. 

There is a new school now, far away from any fast food places and with a closed campus. I hope some of the smoking, drinking, hooliganism is also curbed. I haven't been in the new school. Lynette graduated the spring before the move.

But I digress...

Thursday was the state trap competition. In Doniphan. Fifty miles away. Zane needed to be there at 7:15 because Ravenna Trap had an early slot. We left at 6. I over estimated the driving time and we were there before 7. There was a team picture and the first round of 5 shooters started about 7:30. It took them nearly an hour to shoot their 100 rounds. Zane was in the second group and with only 4, they were done about 9:30. Zane didn't need to be back to school until 11:30 so we looked at the trophies and the vendors, got some ice cream and left for home. 

With (I'm guessing) several hundred kids there, the chances of a first year bringing one home is slim to none. Zane has done very well, this first year, never having fired a shotgun before. He did the best he's ever done, with 75 hits out of a hundred. I find it hard to keep my eye on the clay pigeons (blue rocks where I grew up) even though they are orange. My long sight isn't very good anymore. 

On another note, I am still collecting idioms or sayings or "our way of saying things".

Here are today's.

Some I use, some I don't

Fat as a roll of butter

Looking down your nose (at someone)

Hanker after (something)

All gussied up

Strike while the iron is hot

Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof

Raining cats and dogs

Brand, spanking, new

*and the starred ones in the post

Too Wordy for Me

I love words. 

 I said this before in the other three posts of idioms and sayings.  I found a list on the internet and they are called idioms. Most of them I would call sayings. Sayings that make our language more colorful and more confusing to someone learning it. I love the twists and turns that words can make. I added to that list of things that I know and use.

Add insult to injury

All the tea/rice in China

At the eleventh hour

Avoid like the plague

Back to the drawing board

The ball is in your court

Barking up the wrong tree

Beat around the bush

Bell the cat

The best thing since sliced bread

Beside yourself with joy

Best of both worlds

Black sheep of the family

A blessing in disguise

Blow hot and cold

Between an rock and a hard place

Bite the bullet

Blind as a bat

Blow off steam

Your back against the wall

All in the same boat

The ball is in your court

Bit off more than you can chew

Bob's your uncle*

A bolt from the blue 

Born with a silver spoon in your mouth

Break a leg

Break new ground*

Brought everything but the kitchen sink

Burn your bridges/boats

By the skin of your teeth

Call a spade a spade

Call it a day

A cold day in July*

Come rain or shine

Couch potato*

Cross that bridge when you come to it

Cost a bomb*

Cry for the moon*

Crying wolf

Cut corners

Cut to the chase

Cut some slack

Don't cry over spilled milk

Don't give up your day job

Don't judge a book by it's cover

Don't run before you can walk

Down for the count

Draw first blood*

Eat like a horse

Egg on your face

The elephant in the room

Face the music

Fair and square

Not the only fish in the sea

For land's sake

For goodness sake

In full swing

Full as a tick

Full of beans

Get out of my hair

Get your act together

Get your wires crossed

Give it a whirl

Go cold turkey

Go down in flames

Wild goose chase

Green thumb

Your guess is as good as mine

Hold a grudge

Have a beef about

Have bigger fish to fry

Heard it on the grapevine

My heart is in my mouth

Hit the books

Hit the nail on the head

Hit the road

Hit the sack

Hold your horses

Ignorance is bliss

The last straw

Johnny on the spot

Jump on the bandwagon

Jump ship

Keep an ear to the ground

Leave no stone unturned

Left in the dark

Like a fish out of water

Looking to your laurels*

Look before you leap

Lose your marbles

Make a hash of

Miss the boat

My old stomping grounds

Not my cup of tea

Once in a blue moon

On cloud nine

A one trick pony

Over my dead body

A penny for your thoughts

Play devil's advocate

Play it by ear

Play your cards right

Pot calls the kettle black

Pull someone's leg

Raining cats and dogs

Rain on my parade

Right as rain

 That rings a bell

Run around in circles

A sandwich short of a picnic

Sat on the fence

Scrape the bottom of the barrel 

See eye to eye

Sell like hotcakes

Shed light on

Shoot from the hip

Sit tight

Sleep on it

Something the cat drug in

A stone's throw away

Smell a rat

Snowball effect

Snug as a bug in a rug

So far, so good

Spanner in the works (UK)*

Spill the beans

Speak of the devil

Steal someone's thunder

Step up your game

Straight from the horses mouth

Swan song

Taste of your own medicine

Like two peas in a pod

Take a back seat

Take it with a pinch of salt

Tickled pink

Third times a charm

Throw caution to the winds

It takes two to tango

Through thick and thin

Two shakes of a dead lambs tail (or maybe a live one)

Under the weather

Up in arms

When pigs fly

The whole nine yards

The whole shebang

Wouldn't be caught dead

You can say that again

*these are not part of me

If there are double between my posts...too bad.

Too Many Words

 There are sayings that I use that I don't know what category to put them in.

All is fair in love and war.

Better late than never

Better safe than sorry

Be there with bells on

Blown out of the water

Can't get a word in edgewise

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

Crazy as a loon

Fish or cut bait

 Getting up with the chickens

Greatest thing since sliced bread

He has a mind like a steel trap 

He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. 

In like Flynn

In one ear and out the other

It's been a coon's age

It's nothing to sneeze at

It's water under the bridge

Living from hand to mouth

Missing the boat

Once in a blue moon

Passing the buck

Piece of cake

Sticks out like a sore thumb

There's a bee in your bonnet

Too many cooks spoil the broth

Tougher than whang leather

What goes around comes around

This doesn't quite fit in with what I was collecting, but it's a good saying:

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink

Plus I'm getting tired of collecting.  It has been rather amusing to see what other people have found. 

Close but no cigar

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth 

Go big or go home

Healthy as a horse

I feel like death warmed over

Lollygagging (wasting time)

Not all it's cracked up to be

Over egg the pudding

Strike while the iron is hot

Thick as thieves

Jim's dad's favorites

It can rain pretty easy once it gets started

All signs fail in a drought

More Words

 Last weekend we paid a visit to my folks.  They had a load of sand delivered to fill an old cistern pit and the delivery was so over what was needed, that Jim took the tractor to clean up the sand and pack the pit. While we were there, we added to the already formidable list of idioms, proverbs and sayings. 

Mom, who grew up hearing this and taught them to me, was making a list, and we thought of and spoke more of them during the visit.  It's a way of speaking for us.  It's normal. 

I'm making a new list, since the other one is so long.

Sayings

Adding insult to injury

All bets are off

Better fish to fry

Beyond the pale

Bit off more than I can chew

I have a bone to pick with you

Brought to a head

Burning the midnight oil

Cash on the barrel head

Cat got your tongue?

Clear as a bell

Cool as a cucumber 

Don't burn your bridges

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

Don't rock the boat

Down to brass tacks

Dry as a bone

Give up the ghost

Get off on the right foot

Get our of my hair

Get under your skin

Get your foot in the door

Give them the boot

Got the short end of the stick

Finger on the pulse

Fly by the seat of your pants

A fly in the ointment

I have a bone to pick with you

In the loop

In the nick of time

Jump out of your skin

Let sleeping dogs lie

Like a fish out of water

Living hand to mouth

Look at what the cat dragged in

Lose your shirt

Low man on the totem pole

Money burning a hole in your pocket

Need like a hole in my head

No skin off my teeth

Not my  cup of tea

Not my strong suit

On its last legs

Out of the loop

A pig in a poke

Poor as a church mouse

Preaching to the choir

Put a damper on

Put your best foot forward

Right of the bat

Right on the money

Running around like a chicken with its head cut off

Same song, second verse

See the handwriting on the wall

Sharp as a tack

Slick as a whistle

Spill the beans

Start on a shoe string

Sticks to your ribs

Strike while the iron is hot

Sweep under the rug

Take the bull by the horns

Testing the waters

The early bird gets the worm

The tide has turned

Too big for your britches

Tricks of the trade

Until the cows come home

Waiting for the other shoe to drop

A watched pot never boils

Water under the bridge

We're all in the same boat

What goes around comes around

You can't teach an old dog new tricks

You make a better door than window

Other Words

A pretty kettle of fish

All buttoned up

As the crow flies

Bandied about (told around)

Bone of contention

A bum steer

Cobble together

Crack of dawn

 A Doubting Thomas

On edge

Feel like death warmed over

Feel like I've been run over by a truck

For crying out loud

Hand over fist

I declare

In a pickle

In nothing flat

In one ear and out the other

Jam-packed

Looked High and Low

Nip and Tuck

No time like the present

Pain in the neck

Pennies on the dollar

Shot down

Slim to none

Splitting hairs

I'm ready to be done with this project, but it has been lots of fun.

We use a lot more than we thought we did.  Most of these, one time or another, we have used.

Our language is the more colorful in their use.  

First list

Mere Words

I have always been fascinated with words.  My current words that I like to use just because I like to are exacerbate, recalcitrant, obstreperous, and tenacious. 

I grew up with a colorful language of "sayings" or idioms as they are called when you want to look them up, and I've always wanted to write them down, so I've been collecting, I had no idea I knew so many.  A few of these I use all the time, the majority I don't.  I've failed in passing them down.  

UPDATE! I have been collecting these right along, and I'm surprised at how many I use over the course of a few months. I've decided not to sort them all by anyway except alphabetically.  Some are idioms some are just funny ways of saying things.

According to Hoyle 

All in the same boat

All the bells and whistles

And there you are

Another day another dollar

Baptized by fire

Barking up the wrong tree

Batten down the hatches

Bats in your belfry

No use beating a dead horse

Beat around the bush

Beat the tar out of

Better late than never

Between a rock and a hard place

Black as pitch

Were here born in a barn?

Born with a silver spoon in your mouth

Bought/sold the farm

Bite the bullet

I have a bone to pick with you

A bun in the oven

Can't get blood from a stone/turnip

Can't carry a tune in a bucket

Can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack

Cash on the barrel-head

Caught with your pants down

Chances are slim to none

Changed his tune

Clear as mud

Comes back to bite you

Comes back to haunt you

Costs and arm and a leg

Cotton on to

Couple bricks shy of a load

As the crow flies

Cute as a bug's ear

Dark as a stack of black cats

Dead as a doornail

Deaf as a post

Dodged a bullet

Doesn't amount to a hill of beans

A dollar waiting on a dime

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

Don't judge a book by it's cover

Down to brass tacks

Down to the wire

Don't a be a stick in the mud

Don't go home until the last dog is hung.

Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes

Dressed to the nines

Driving like Jehu

Drop in the bucket

(Eat) like it's going out of style

Fall for it hook, line and sinker

Fell down on the job

First whack out of the box

Full as a tick

Funnier than all get out

Get it coming and going

Get it while the getting's good

Get out of my hair

Getting the upper hand

Getting your just desserts

Getting too big for your britches

Goes against the grain

*Going over like a lead balloon

Going to town (at something)

Get my goat

Grab the bull by the horns

The grass is greener on the other side of the fence

See the handwriting on the wall

Hanging by a thread

Handed on a silver platter

Happy as a clam (at high tide, some say)

Haven't seen hide nor hair of them

A hitch in my get-along

Hold your horses

Getting a heads up

Grasping at straws

Hanging by a thread

*I'm out of here like a herd of turtles

Hitting below the belt

Hit it on the nose (right on target)

Hit the spot

If the shoe fits, wear it.

I'll see you in the funny papers 

A fine kettle of fish!

Jumping through hoops

Kick the bucket

Kill two birds with one stone

Knee-high to a grasshopper

A leopard can't change it's spots

Lie through your teeth

Like a hot knife through butter

Living high on the hog

Like a bump/knot on a log

Like it's going out of style

Like pulling teeth

(Doing whatever) Like there's no tomorrow

Lying through their teeth

Living high on the hog

Living the life of Riley

Look down your nose at

Madder than a wet hen

Make hash of (something)

Make hay while the sun shines

Making a mountain out of a mole hill

For many a moon

Money burning a hole in your pocket

More than one way to skin a cat

More than you can shake a stick at

My way or the high way

Need that like a cat needs two tails

Needle in a haystack

Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof

No holds barred

Not for all the tea in China

Not the only pebble on the beach

No time like the present

Not a leg to stand on

Nothing to sneeze at

Nothing to write home about

One brick shy of a load

One fell swoop

Open a can of worms

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Out of the mouth of babes

Passed with flying colors

Poor as a church mouse

Pot calling the kettle black

Pulling up by your bootstraps 

Pushing the envelope

Pussy footing around

Put a flea in their ear

Pull out all the stops

Put a brick on his head 

Put a lid on it

Put words in my mouth

Put your ducks in a row

Put your money where your mouth is

Put your foot in your mouth (Foot in mouth disease)

Quit beating around the bush

Right up my alley

Raining cats and dogs

Runs like a faucet (noses)

Sawing logs (sleeping heavily or snoring)

Saved by the bell

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

Scared the liver out of me

I haven't seen hide nor hair of (them)

Shoot yourself in the foot.

Sick a a dog

Six on on and half dozen of another

Slip through the cracks

Slow and steady wins the race

Slow as molasses in January

Speak now or forever hold your peace

Straight from the horse's mouth

Starting on a shoestring

Step up to the plate

Sticks in my craw

Stick to your guns

Stir the pot

Stopped dead in their tracks

Six ways from Sunday

Shot himself in the foot

Slower than molasses in January

Snug as a bug in a rug

Switch horses mid-stream

Take a gander at

Take a leaf out of (someone's) book

Takes to it like a duck to water

That's the way the cookie crumbles

There's egg on your face

The shoe's on the other foot

The tail wagging the dog

'Til the cows come home

Throw in the towel

Took the starch right out of me

Tough row to hoe

Turn over a new leaf

Two shakes of a (dead) lamb's tail

Up a creek without a paddle

Up one side and down another

Upset the apple cart

Water off a duck's back

A watched pot never boils

Were you born in a barn?

Whatever floats your boat

What's good for the goose is good for the gander

Work to death

The whole nine yards

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink

You make a better door than window

 

Other words

At loggerheads

Blowing up a storm

Bound and determined

A bum steer

Cabbage onto

Catty-corner (kitty-corner)

Cattywampus (catawampus kittywampus )

Chintzy

Chivvy

Cockeyed

Comeuppance

Cotton on to

Crystal clear

Cut and dried

Dead to the world

Dig in your heels

Don't piddle around

Fair to middling

Faster than all get out

Feel like I've been run over by a truck

Fit as a fiddle

First dibs

Flat broke

For crying out loud!

For Pete's sake

Get on the ball

Get up and go

Get your goat

Gist

Hidden up your sleeve

Hit like a ton of bricks

Madder than hops

My get up and go has got up and went

Gumption

Hankering after

Hitch in my git-along

Hoofing it

I reckon so

I have a mind to

Kerfluffle

My old stomping grounds

No spring chicken

Off kilter

Over yonder

Peter out

Plumb crazy (or plumb whatever)

Pulling my leg

Like pulling teeth

Put words in my mouth

Shaking like a leaf/Shaking in their boots

Silver lining

Sitting duck

Slept like a log

Smack dab in the middle of

Splitting hairs

Spot on

Stomping grounds

Stove up

Take a gander at

Tongue lashing

Two left feet

Under your belt (it's done)

Up to snuff

When pigs fly

 

Offered by others

Shanks mare

Went to Valhalla

These sort of sayings and word usage may be native only to certain parts of the country.

I use these and my dad is on the hunt to find more.  I learned them at home.

*Absolute favorites.

Second list