waiting with baited breath
beating a dead horse- where did this come from? why would you even think to say this in the first place? really? a dead horse?
off like a dirty shirt
I am sure Amy will be able to educate all of us on these.
Monday, March 31, 2008
A few sayings I don't understand
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2 comments:
Hunter,
It's "bated" breath, not "baited." Telling people you've got worms in your mouth wouldn't convey your excitement nearly as well as telling them you're holding your breath in anticipation. "Bate" is a synonym for "abate"; they both mean to restrain or diminish. So "waiting with bated breath" is not an idiom: it's a pretty direct way of saying you'll be breathless with anticipation.
Beating a live horse is something you'd do to get the horse to move. If the horse is dead, though, it's probably not going to be motivated by a beating. So beating a dead horse, both literally and figuratively, implies wasted action that accomplishes nothing.
here's a favorite misstated saying "head over heels" Since you are normally head over heels (standing upright) this saying doesn't make much sense in its current form, originally it was "heels over head" - which makes a lot more sense in the context in which it is used today.
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