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
Whatever became of Twiggy?
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."
A long time ago, I learnt: "As keen as a whistle" - never found out the connection. Does it still have currency?
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.
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).
As dumb as a box of rocks.
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.
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?
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]
And here I always said it was as clean as a whistle.
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
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
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.....
Clean as a whistle is my understanding, too.
I like as thick as two short planks, too... not very nice, of course...
alexis
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
as corny as Kansas in August
as high as the sky in July
(not referring to you dodyskin)
as slow as molasses in January
As dumb as a box of rocks.
Which are dumber, ignious, sedementary, or metamorphic?
Geoff, curious as a cat
Which are dumber, ignious, sedementary, or metamorphic?I would guess ignorantious are dumber....unless maybe metamoronphic are.....
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
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
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.
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"
From dodyskin:
as mad as tost
???
Where did that come from?
Robert
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".
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
"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
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
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.
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.
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".
As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers!
Albert Einstein's surname means a stone.Yeah, well, it does give a new twist to somebody claiming to be "stoned."
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)
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
And another: someone can be referred to as "not as green as they are cabbage-looking"!
Although I'm not sure which I prefer - looking like a cabbage, or being naive...
"not as green as they are cabbage-looking"!
"My salad days,/ When I was green in judgment, cold in blood." Shakespeare, Tony & Cleo
and a biblical (well King James's writers way of putting it)
Harsh words from a child to a parent, are
as sharp as a viper's tooth
as sharp as a viper's toothMy car has a pair of vindshield vipers, or snakes in the glass.
as vigilant as Cerberus[
Just learned of this yesterday.
I googled Cerberus and found this: "in Greek mythology, a three-headed, dragon-tailed dog that guarded the entrance to the lower world, or Hades . The monster permitted all spirits to enter Hades, but would allow none to leave. Only a few heroes ever escaped Cerberus's guard; the great musician Orpheus charmed it with his lyre, and the Greek hero Hercules captured it bare-handed and brought it for a short time from the underworld to the regions above. In Roman mythology both the beautiful maiden Psyche and the Trojan prince Aeneas were able to pacify Cerberus with a honey cake and thus continue their journey through the underworld.
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~tim/cerberus/
"I beg your pardon, monsieur. I did not mean to do it."
- Marie Antoinette, after she had accidentally stepped on the executioner's foot while mounting to the guillotine
The Lone Haranguer
"Might I point out, sir, that there are too many "o"s in your name?"
Geoff, upon getting down to snot's level
Ah, snoot. I love this "Famous Last Words" theme you've got going here.
Might indeed be an interesting new thread.
A "new" thread of "last" words?
Keiva, go away. You are not welcome here.
The person know as Keiva, who recently posted on this thread, was banned, for flaming.
He forced his way back into this forum by making implied threats to Anu Garg, the founder of AWAD. This same person has also been know, for certain, to post under the aliases AphonicRants and KeivaCarpal.
see
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=miscellany&Number=73229. There you go again, of-troy.
Edit: and there you go again, Consuelo, repeating verbatim below what you said just above. Repetitive interruption.
Keiva, go away. You are not welcome here.
Consuelo, I don't think Mr Guthrie would like you quoting him like that.
Anyway - back to the matter at hand - I spent most of my childhood in lovely tropical Darwin. We had mango trees in our backyard, and as a consequence we had a lot of fruitbats in the yard too (they're also known as flying foxes). The point is, another variation on 'mad as' is "Mad as a fruitbat;" I'm not sure whether this was meant to mean angry or crazy, but when they're squabbling over fruit, they certainly sound annoyed... Might also be a play on the idea of 'batty' meaning crazy.
A common expression where I came from (Zild) and one which seems to be understood where I am now (Here There Be Dragons), is "as mad as a meataxe".
Speaking of which, "shambles" comes originally from the Latin scamnum, scamni, a footstool. Pre-Conquest, it became the ME word (sceamol I think) for a butcher's block and got reduced, over time, to shambles.
It became applied to, of all things, bishop's palaces during one of Christianity's greater periods - burning of heretics and witches. Doncha just luuurve that ol'time religion? This usage occurred because it became the norm to carry out this form of quasi-legal death by torture in the courtyard at the bishop's palace. It also became the common word for a slaughterhouse, probably about the same time (15th-16th C). Willy-nilly, and for obvious reasons, it also became used to refer to battlegrounds immediately after the fight and before the bodies were carted away.
It was still being used in that sense in the 19th century when an area in Southwark in London was called The Shambles because the tenements there were built over the remains of an older slaughterhouse. Because the area was such a mess (more so than usual for that time), it came to mean any kind of a mess, hence our usage today.
I did have to look up the last part of this!
As pliant as a bamboo
When you see bamboo poles used for fencing or flooring in remote villages in undeveloped countries, you wouldn't think them pliant but while they are still growing they sway with the gentlest of winds.
It is an Oriental saying that in a storm it is better to be
a slender, pliant bamboo than a big, massive Acacia tree.
I guess bamboos "go with the flow" to survive.
Just finished a lighthearted book called "Farm Fatale" by Wendy Holden.
Two disparate couples seek relief from hectic city life by moving to the country where they run up against the eccentric residents of Eight Mile Bottom among which are a reclusive rock star' a nosy postman, a studly farmer and a mysterious millionaire! Good fun with some snappy puns dropped in willy nilly. It's very clever and quite naughty
ISBN0-452-28302-7 (Putnam Penguin Publishers)
Go away, Keiva. You are not wanted here.
You raped my identity with your faux handle 'AphonicRants.'
Hi wow, I can see you are enjoying your retirement, but still immersed in words, right?
That is a very hilarious title. And from your report it is that. I will be sure to look it up come winter time, which is my reading time.
"Farm Fatale" does sound like a terrific book to read. Hope my brain remembers it the next time I check into Barnes and Noble... Does it come in paperback?
WW
see
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=73305There you go again, ASp, repeating verbatim your same old song in six separate threads. If you can't have your way, you'll interrupt to poison any other discussion on this board. Spamming.
Keiva: go away, you are not welcome here.
the person know as Keiva, who recently posted on this thread, was banned, for flaming.
he forced his way back into this forum by implied threats. this same person has also been know, for certain, to post under the names AphonicRants and KeivaCarpal.
The truth is not a flame, the truth is not spam
Go away, Keiva. You are not wanted here.
Keiva, go away. You are not welcome here.
Can you at least take this to I&A?
Answer: Nope. It belongs on all threads.
AnnaStrophic, I'm sorry, but no matter how much it hurt to have Keiva use the name AphonicRants, I refuse to believe that the pain comes anywhere near the pain of being raped. As a woman, I take offence, and so should you.
And now, can we please get back to the words? I'm done with wrangling and powerplays for the day; I'd be as mad as a hornet's nest , except that I'm as hungry as a bear and feeling daft as a dingbat after a day at work!
actually we could make it stop. here a plan, Nancy UNPLUG the computer, remove the modem. or better yet, get it out of your house. when he stops posting, we will stop pointing out he was banned and doesn't belong here. he forced his way back with threat.
he is behaving like a willfull spoiled child. treat him like one.
it is not our fault he lied and you lied. don't blame us. we are not the problem.
I've never entirely understood 'as safe as houses'. Yes, houses are meant to be stable and all that, but they do sometimes fall down. Guess it's just talking about as safe as can reasonably be expected.
How about "as cool as a cucumber" (was it here or somewhere else I read that it's been shown that the insides of cucumbers are always cooler than the ambient room temperature, at least until it gets stinking hot; that's way cool). And it has that lovely lilting alliteration.
As important as a fart in a firestormreminds me of:
Lost as a fart in a thunderstorm(the "in a thunderstorm" bit is optional but effective
)
I'm amazed that this appears tyo be a new one!
Fisk
Only a few heroes ever escaped Cerberus's guard
Just occurs to me that this is probably why Kerberos (Greek) is the name of a pretty effective computer security system.
Cerberus was the original Hellhound, but who was the original Hellcat? The Sphinx? Another jealous guardian of a pathway, as I recall, but beaten by wit rather than charm.
dancing a merry tangentHeck, that almost never happens here, alexis
a shambles, to me, is a mess, a cock-up, close to a disaster sometimes. Yes, this is another situation where the Aussie (prob. meaning
Australasian here, eh CapK?
) meaning of old slang is almost exactly the same as the Brit meaning.
The stuff about butcher's and/or fishmonger's benches was to do with supposed origins of the word.
For a disaster we'd talk about an "
absolute shambles", though it would still be more like a huge cock-up than a genuine disaster. Thinking about it, "shambles" rarely relates to a physical mess, it's more of an organisational/administrative mess. Does that apply elsewhere?
Fisk
If you can't have your way, you'll interrupt to poison
any other discussion on this board. Spamming.
Ha, ha. There he goes again. This could easily be applied to you you little toad. You've been guilty of this on innumerable occasions and yet you will never admit to being wrong. Absolute denial is a mental illness, Kenny boy. Get some help. You are getting worse and worse every day.
and there you go again, Consuelo, repeating verbatim below what you said just above. Repetitive interruption.
How perceptive of you Kenny boy! And do you notice anything else? The content man! Read the words! What do they say? Or can you not understand them? I think people are trying to tell you something but you just don't get it. Well, it'll just have to go on like this forever, won't it Kenny babes?
Geoff made me laugh out loud!
"a pair of snakes in the glass" indeed!
Sighhh....I miss him.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
In response to FishonaBike's clarification of "Mancunian"
I see... But I still say you would have to be as mad as a hatter to say mad as toast or cheese or eggs...
Incidentally, which of these expressions is equivalent to "mad as a hatter" (crazy), and which is equivalent to "mad as a hornet" (angry)?
Robert
I've heard "Strong as an ox" but I'm sure there must be more strength-type expressions.
How about for weakness - anybody know expressions?
Dumb as a box of hammers.
Red as a tomato
White as a ghost
Silent as a mouse
Dunno about weakness, bel, but one "as...as" I enjoyed when I came across it in Giovanni Guaresci's Don Camillo books was "full as an egg."
The problem, of course, is dealing with absolutes: something is either full, or it isn't - kinda like being a little bit pregnant or a little bit dead...! but I still really like "as full as an egg." In fact, maybe I'll read the Don Camillo books next - once I finish Lucy Carmichael. (That will be a sad day, indeed - I wish all books could be this good!)
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
Dear MG: Full as an egg is not really an impressive metaphor. Have you never noticed the rather large air sac in one end of the egg? At the moment I can't remember which end for sure, but I think it is the big end.
If an egg has about thirty cc. of contents, almost two cc is in that little sac. I suppose it is necessary so that rise in temperature which cause liquid volume to increase can't cause rigid shell to break open.
Ah, Bill - but the rigid shell DOES break open if, for example, you boil it without puncturing it first.
I thought the air space in an egg was much smaller? and contained between the shell and the membrane? maybe the phrase should be, "as full as an egg membrane"??!!
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
I was talking about just storage temperatures that could break shell except for cushion of air sac. Have you ever carefully cut a boiled egg in half, and noticed the concentric rings in the yolk?
mad as toast means crazy tinged with the ridiculous
mad as eggs means the subject is a lovable lunatic, ditto cheese.
we also say silly tart, daft cow, nasty pasty, twisted biscuit, mad bint, oh, it's endless
Have you ever carefully cut a boiled egg in half
Not to look for concentric rings....which way do they show up? when you cut it in half lengthwise, or across the widest bit?
and what do they prove?
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.