Another one turning up on PF (for the newcomer, that's PhraseFinder). Means confusion as in "Don't get your wires crossed." Very old and usage pretty widespread; yet why can't I find it in the typical online slang dictionaries and word origin sites

perhaps because it is seemingly easily understood?

(no condescension or sarcasm intended)

Eta; None inferred. Yet thousands of other common, obvious and easily understood slang expressions are found in slang dictionaries; eg, get on someone's nerves; foot the bill; elevator music; carry a lot of weight

good point, dale.

dh, "crossed wires" is a - how shall I say this? - direct and visual piece of slang. Crossed telegraph wires and all. The other examples you gave (and I know this is not an exhaustive list) aren't as readily visual. How does one "foot" a bill? Yes, we know what it means, but the visual image isn't as direct as "crossed wires". Same for the others. Just a thought.

Question: Does "crossed wires" ever refer to getting angry in English? In Spanish we use the same metaphor but with this meaning. So, "he got his wires crossed" means "he suddenly got really angry", perhaps because swapping electrical wires might actually result in some kind of shortcircuiting spark?

Liz: Thank you for your thoughtful followup. True, "foot" is more nearly symbolic in its origin. It might be interesting to start a new thread discussing how its meaning is different from "pay" (I speculate that the former usu implies a slight feeling of obligation)

But that doesn't explain why my expression isn't found in the slang dictionaires, which contain thousands if not tens of thousands of more or less direct and visual entries

Eg, dead white European male; look like a drowned rat; group grope; blow a gasket; you've got it wired; baby sit; follow-home robbery; crash and burn; go jump in the lake; missionary position; hammer away at; enough to choke a horse; does a wooden horse have a hickory dick?

Mari: No, never heard it used that way, and neither has Laverne, who is much smarter than I and reads voluminously

> missionary position; hammer away at; enough to choke a horse; does a wooden horse have a hickory dick?

My my, Dale - you've been lookin' up some quaint expressions!

I think the answer to your query is that the status of most of these kinds of online resources is partial and provisional at best - they are often the fond project of one individual. Even authoritative ones like Quinion, wordorigins [and wwftd ] never claim to be the kind of universal resource you can only get at by massive resources of team scholarship.

Wow! Those are graphic examples - especially the wooden horse. Not sure I'll ever look at a wooden horse the same way again. By the way, there is a life-sized wooden carving of a moose a few miles up the highway from me, bedecked with a set of real antlers and equipped with - well, with the appropriately sized equipment. I suppose I should ask the owner if it's hickory.....

I got that!

Or else mybe a cut off tail?

In which case it would have a hickory dick or a dock.

Mav you may be right. But the expression isn't even found in the H-C Dict of Am. Slang, which contains 20,000 entries and is considered very scholarly and authoritative

That's where I got the quaint expressions