#72415
06/12/2002 9:40 AM
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I was just talking to my mum, and she mentioned that someone was as skinny as a matchstick with the wood shaved off . I'd never heard that one, so I thought I'd share it here, and ask people what their favourite people descriptors are. Personally, I also like mad as a cut snake , and various others I can't think of off the top of my head.
Alexis
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#72416
06/12/2002 11:08 AM
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#72417
06/12/2002 11:49 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Whatever became of Twiggy?
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#72418
06/12/2002 12:14 PM
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old hand
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Whatever became of Twiggy?
She shaved, and - POOF!
Of course, Lewis Carroll gave us "Mad as a hatter," and one that I've used is "ugly as the northernmost part of a south-bound warthog."
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#72419
06/12/2002 12:15 PM
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A long time ago, I learnt: "As keen as a whistle" - never found out the connection. Does it still have currency?
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#72420
06/12/2002 1:57 PM
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old hand
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What a great thread, alexis! I like your original example - never heard that before! I like "dumber'n a barrel of hair" - which apparently gets used in Texas. The Globe and Mail, "Canada's National Newspaper!", occasionally runs an item called "word watch" on the back page of the front section - sometimes it's very amusing.....that's where I got this expression from. I haven't heard "sharp as a whistle" but I like it. I HAVE heard "sharp as a tack," "sharp as a knife," and "so sharp he'll cut himself." Conversely, people sometimes talk about someone as being "not the sharpest knife in the drawer." But whether that means that person is dumber'n a barrel of hair, I guess I'll never know. 
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#72421
06/12/2002 4:11 PM
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Cool as a cucumber; hard (or tough) as nails; smooth as silk; hotter than Hades (oops, that's not an "as...as" construction, but it could be).
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#72422
06/12/2002 4:49 PM
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As dumb as a box of rocks.
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#72423
06/12/2002 5:15 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Actually, mad as a hatter came considerably before Lewis Carroll. Madness was a symptom of mercury poisoning; the mercury was used in the manufacture of felt, from which the hats were made.
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#72424
06/12/2002 5:55 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Remembering this from my childhood, I went back to the old book and found it. The comparsions are nowhere near as clever as those above, but they are cleverly combined.
As wet as a fish--as dry as a bone;
As live as a bird--as dead as a stone;
As plump as a partridge--as poor as a rat;
As strong as a horse--as weak as a cat;
As hard as a flint--as soft as a mole;
As white as a lily--as black as a coal;
As heavy as lead--as light as a feather;
As steady as time--uncertain as weather;
As hot as an oven--as cold as a frog;
As gay as a lark--as sick as a dog;
As savage as tigers--as mild as a dove;
As stiff as a poker--as limp as a glove;
As blind as a bat--as deaf as a post;
As cool as a cucumber--as warm as toast;
As flat as a flounder--as round as a ball;
As blunt as a hammer--as sharp as an awl;
As brittle as glass--as tough as gristle;
As neat as a pin--as clean as a whistle;
As red as a rose--as square as a box;
As bold as a thief--as sly as a fox.
I'm still scratching my head over "as keen as a whistle", noted above. What's keen about a whistle?
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#72425
06/12/2002 6:11 PM
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I'm still scratching my head over "as keen as a whistle", noted above. What's keen about a whistle?
The sound! From my trusty, never dusty Webster's:
keen adj. 1. Very sharp, as a knife. 2. Cutting; piercing, as wit. 3. Vivid; pungent. 4. Having or exhibiting sharpness or penetration. 5. Acute: keen sight. 6. Exceptionally intelligent. 7. Characterized by intensity; a keen appetite. 8. Informal impatient; eager: keen to be off.
Based upon these definitions, I would clearly say that keen as a whistle refers to the sound a whistle makes. [plugging my ears-e]
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#72426
06/12/2002 6:35 PM
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And here I always said it was as clean as a whistle.
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#72427
06/12/2002 7:01 PM
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I seem to remember one that goes something like
Flatter than a fritter (flitter?).
Does anyone know this one? I may be as dumb as a post, but
I suppose it is the same as saying
Flat as a pancake.
(Or Flat as an armadillo on I-20!)
Robert
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#72428
06/12/2002 7:05 PM
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Clean as a whistle for me too.
Anyone who has tried to whistle (which I can't!) knows what it's like when the whistle comes out clean (keen!) and what it's like when it comes out (with other things) messy!
Robert
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#72429
06/12/2002 9:39 PM
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#72430
06/13/2002 4:17 AM
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old hand
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ewein, I've heard "as mad as a wet hen" before, too - and the "mad as a cut snake" mentioned above (though I've heard that less often).
What on earth does a wet hen do, to make her an exemplar of madness/anger?! one wonders.....
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#72431
06/13/2002 8:43 AM
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Clean as a whistle is my understanding, too.
I like as thick as two short planks, too... not very nice, of course...
alexis
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#72432
06/13/2002 12:13 PM
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#72433
06/13/2002 12:22 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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as busy as a cat on a marble-topped table
as busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger with the hives during strawberry season
as busy as a pregnant squirrel in a forest fire
as busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kickin' contest
as busy as a bee in a basin
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#72434
06/13/2002 5:40 PM
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#72435
06/14/2002 1:46 AM
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enthusiast
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as corny as Kansas in August
as high as the sky in July
(not referring to you dodyskin)
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#72436
06/14/2002 2:04 AM
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as slow as molasses in January
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#72437
06/14/2002 2:59 AM
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old hand
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As dumb as a box of rocks.
Which are dumber, ignious, sedementary, or metamorphic?
Geoff, curious as a cat
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#72438
06/14/2002 3:21 AM
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Which are dumber, ignious, sedementary, or metamorphic?I would guess ignorantious are dumber....unless maybe metamoronphic are.....
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#72439
06/14/2002 3:21 AM
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enthusiast
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Which are dumber, ignious, sedementary, or metamorphic?Igneous is the closest sounding to ignoramus, so that must be the one  my last post for the day, so goodnight, Geoff
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#72440
06/14/2002 10:59 AM
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these may have already been posted
as bright as a button
as dull as dishwater
as dead as a doornail (Dickens)
as mad as toast
as cunning as a very cunning fox that has just become professor of cunning at cunning university (off 'Blackadder' the telly programme)
as cheap as chips
as sound as a pound
as safe as houses
as pretty as a picture
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#72441
06/14/2002 12:44 PM
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Well, MG and WC, I assumed Igneous to be the most hot-headed, sedementary the laziest, metamorphic the most amenable to change. Still dunno about dumbth, though.
Yesterday was 97 Farenheit (36.5 C) here, so I'm hot as a fox in a forest fire.
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#72442
06/14/2002 2:14 PM
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Yo alexis, as happy as a sandboy is one of my favourites - a very common English/British phrase (apparently led to some confusion in the US when used in Bridget Jones's Diary**). I recently discovered the origin of the phrase. Thought I'd already posted the link on AWAD but can't find it now, so here it is again: http://www.briggs13.fsnet.co.uk/book/s.htm Capital Kiwi referred to another of my favourites, in a thread containing lots of happiness : http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=68894Oh, and yet another favourite (is this used anywhere other than England?): as camp as a row of tentsAnd here's a good one for rumination: as thick as thievesI checked and "thick" has no less than 6 meanings. This phrase uses one of the least common, I think. Fisk** Though not as much as "I'm dying for a fag"
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#72443
06/14/2002 4:10 PM
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From dodyskin:
as mad as tost
???
Where did that come from?
Robert
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#72444
06/14/2002 8:04 PM
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as mad as toast
a mancunian saying, god knows where or how it originated, variations include "as mad as cheese" and "as mad as eggs".
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#72445
06/14/2002 8:11 PM
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the shambles reference was confusing as in manchester the shambles has always meant the fish market (where fish-wives scream their opinions). since the bomb the shambles ( est around 1580) was relocated but still boasts an oyster pub. i thought the shambles was exclusively a term for fish market, or dodgy dealing place for hawkers of questionable repute
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#72446
06/14/2002 9:27 PM
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"as mad as cheese" and "as mad as eggs" Brilliant! Robert, in case you didn't know yet, perhaps we need to explain that a "Mancunian" is someone from Manchester, England. Mancunians have a culture all of their own, as witness the phrases above Actually Manchester is probably renowned worldwide for its football (erm, soccer) and should be for some of its music. Which doesn't detract from the fact that most Mancunians are mad as toast. Fisk
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#72447
06/14/2002 9:49 PM
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in manchester the shambles has always meant the fish marketNice meeting you dody - another fellow Brit, and yet another set of pronunciations for the Board! Yeah, that reference on shambles (confused onlookers please see my previous post for happy as a sandboy link) talks about the wooden bench upon which butchers used to display, and maybe carve up, their wares. Maybe fishmongers used something similar? As for "dodgy dealings", you still get those at markets, eh? Fisk
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#72448
06/14/2002 11:59 PM
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Hmm, a thread that I started, and now I'm dancing a merry tangent... a shambles, to me, is a mess, a cock-up, close to a disaster sometimes. I knew the other meanings (particularly its geog origin) but that's the most common here in Aus.
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#72449
06/15/2002 12:06 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Well, MG and WC, I assumed Igneous to be the most hot-headed, sedementary the laziest, metamorphic the most amenable to change.Wasn't there a thread quite some time ago where each of noted the rock which best exemplifies him or her? I think I was some sedimentary rock or other.
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#72450
06/15/2002 12:10 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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As dumb as a box of rocks.
An odd fleeting thought is that Albert Einstein's surname means a stone. Somehow, though, I don't think that "as smart as a stone" will ever come to mean "as smart as Einstein".
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#72451
06/15/2002 12:13 AM
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As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers!
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#72452
06/15/2002 2:13 AM
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old hand
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Albert Einstein's surname means a stone.Yeah, well, it does give a new twist to somebody claiming to be "stoned."
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#72453
06/15/2002 2:40 AM
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as cunning as a very cunning fox that has just become professor of cunning at cunning university (off 'Blackadder' the telly programme)
and
as camp as a row of tents
made me laugh out loud!
This is a great thread - I'm enjoying it so much!
From Tennessee Williams - and not as funny as the above:
as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
(or was it "as restless as"? - that somehow makes more sense)
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#72454
06/15/2002 3:43 AM
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as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
I once heard somebody Spoonerize this as "...a tit on a hot can roof." OUCH!
As important as a fart in a firestorm
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