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From: Enrico C <enrico.c@spamcop.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: [Idioms #15] Animals
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 15:37:00 +0100
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I found a whole zoo of animal idioms and expressions on doghause.com
Some are easy, some aren't that obvious.
If you are "working like ants", you are working hard, but if you have
"ants in your pants", that would mean that you are very restless and
impatient!
A "big dog" is an important person. "Free as a bird" is free. "Hungry
as a bear" is very hungry. "A dog's life" is not an easy life. "Eagle
eyes" is said of a person who can see details or errors. A "can of
worms" is a controversial issue. And "if you run after two hares, you
will catch neither". Of course! :)
If it is raining "cats and dogs", it's raining heavily. The "biggest
toad in the puddle" is the most important person in a small group.
"Happy as a clam in high tide" is very happy. "Poor as a church mouse"
is very poor (there isn't a pantry where to find food, there). And,
remember, "you cannot teach an old dog new tricks".
There are stranger beasts too, in the Doghause zoo.
If you are surprised of something, you can say "I'll be a monkey's
uncle".
If you want a special way of saying that someone can do anything,
just say "the world is his oyster".
To "play possum", is to pretend; to deceive, because if the possum is
threatened with capture it will lie with closed eyes showing no signs
of life.
Then, a "cock-and-bull story" is not true. Why?
This one is from Idiomsite.com:
"A Cock and Bull story is a form of Chinese whispers. It comes from a
long time ago when the two most popular pubs in a village were The
Cock and The Bull. If a story started in The Cock, by the time it got
to The Bull it had been either twisted or exaggerated."
(Chinese whispers = confused messages)
Finally, a "Cuckoo in the nest" is a person subverting or not
conforming with their group, a parasite, says another Expressions &
Sayings gallery.
QUOTE http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayindex.htm
The cuckoo removes and eats one egg from a number of nests built by
other species, replacing it with an egg of her own. She then migrates,
leaving an unsuspecting foster parent to hatch and rear her offspring.
Shortly after hatching, the nestling cuckoo - which hatches earlier
than the young of other birds - destroys all the other eggs in the
nest by tipping them out. It then rapidly outgrows the entire nest,
fed energetically by foster parents which may actually be four or five
times smaller than it.
Under these circumstances it is difficult to see why the cuckoo is
also synonymous with idiotic behaviour, but easy to understand the
origins of cuckold.
UNQUOTE
--
Enrico C
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