- Just hold your horses and keep reading!
These sayings are funny and pretty common. Do you use sayings like “belly up” and “burst at the seams”?
A Hot Potato
The idea is that “no one wants to touch a hot potato,” and this saying means that there’s a topic that no one wants to touch, a “hot potato” topic, if you will.
Turn Turtle
A turn turtle means an overturned turtle and in the sense of using the phrase, it means to flip over or turn upside down.
Armed To The Teeth
If you say someone is armed to the teeth, you’re saying they’re heavily armed or well-equipped but it could mean both with literal weapons or that you’re well-prepared, figuratively. What do you think of these sayings so far?
Wet Behind The Ears
The idea comes from newborn animals being wet from the amniotic sac being born and that the mother would then lick the babies clean. However, the indentation behind the ears would usually still be wet. So when we use the saying these days, it’s to describe someone inexperienced or immature.
Go Belly Up
Have you ever had a goldfish as a kid? If so, you probably know that when they die, they are seen floating “belly up.” When you use it towards a person, it means to fail or go bankrupt.
Hold Your Horses
“Hold your horses,” means to slow down and stay put. This saying was even used as early as Homer’s Iliad. It’s also used to tell someone to just stop.
Earworm
You’ve done this before, you just don’t know it unless you know what the saying means! An earworm is a catchy song or tune that you can’t get out of your head, you know. It’s a song that you cannot get out of your head and it just keeps playing on repeat. Do you think this is a saying, one of these sayings, that you have used before or will in the future?
Burst At The Seams
If you’re about to “burst at the seams” it just means you’re really, really full. You couldn’t eat another bite or drink another sip because that’s how full you are.
Don’t Give Up Your Day Job
This basically means that just because you LOVE doing something, doesn’t necessarily make you good at it and that you should keep your current job or “Don’t give up your day job.”
Bite The Dust
“Another one bites the dust,” by Queen might be a song you think of when you hear this phrase. It means to be killed, die, or to fail at something. These sayings really are common!
Everything But The Kitchen Sink
The saying everything but the kitchen sink means all the things, like the contents of your whole house, almost everything and anything, even unnecessary things. So you would use it like, “It was a small party but Jessica brought everything but the kitchen sink!”
Beef Up
To beef up something means to make it stronger or better, to increase or make something more effective. You could use it like, “After the accident, they beefed up police presence in the area.”
Take It With A Grain Of Salt
There are early texts with the phrase “take it with a grain of salt,” written in them. The expression means for someone not to fully accept all the details and to take it with a grain of salt and a good amount of skepticism.
Whether you use these sayings or not, they’re pretty good and catchy. Let me know what you think of these phrases in the comments!