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rule of thumb has some good things going.. i am stealing idea for rough measurements..
the classic one, it was bigger (or smaller!) than a bread box.. ( i was an adult before i ever saw a bread box!)
so what phrases do you have for bigger, smaller, shorter taller, thinner, fatter, faster slower.. that are about a rough measurement.
(you know, , Short? you're asking if he was short? he could walk under a table and not muss up his hair sort of thing too..)
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old hand
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old hand
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I always like "gimme a ballpark" as a request for a rough guess. On an episode of Friends (sorry folks, I'm sadly addicted and refer to it often!), Monica's boyfriend, having been tipped off by another character that Monica has been with a lot of men, is asking her how many. She doesn't want to tell him, so he says, "Come on, just give me a ballpark," and she replies, "Okay - definitely LESS than a ballpark." well, it was funny at the time - maybe you had to be there!  Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In French we say a woman is thin as a shallot (mince comme une échalotte) when she is very skinny.
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old hand
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Another of my faves, when talking about something immeasurable or un-debatable, is to say, "How long is a piece of string?" I have heard people say, of a pregnant woman, "She's as big as a house!" but this seems vaguely unsatisfactory to me, since houses come in all shapes and sizes and some are actually quite little. Maybe they should say, "She's as big as a bread oven!" - since she's obviously got at least a bun in it!  Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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It's always fun to learn the origin of a catchphrase. I have a vague recollection of "What's My Line," the TV panel show where "bigger than a breadbox" originated. For details: http://www.steveallenonline.com/author/book_pages/Breadbox.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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Oo, I think I remember that show. Yuck maybe I'm getting older than I thought.
When someone shows surprise or awe, we will say his eyes were as round as quarters.
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We get more startled in our family, our eyes get as big as saucers!
and Ump as in "the kids just asked for the Umpteen, are we there yet?"
The classic is the "not as many as the fingers of one hand" for a number between 1 and 5..
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Carpal Tunnel
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I use a football field as a term of measurement when describing a large area. Everybody, including me, unbelievably, knows that a football field is 300 feet long--I don't know how many feet wide, but I figure it must be somewhere around 100 feet wide.
Very small spheres: BB's. They do well for that.
Eggs are good, too, since they're roughly the same size.
However, and this is off-topic, when giving directions here in the Richmond, VA, USA, area, we tend to use 7-Eleven convenience stores as landmarks to guide us. "Go down Broad Street past the Boulevard, and then starting counting 7-Elevens on your right. After the third 7-Eleven, count three streets, turn right, and then start counting 7-Elevens on your left..." And so on.
Back on topic: shoeboxes are good for giving rough estimations of size for objects in that ballpark. You just have to specifiy which kind of shoebox you're talking about.
Also, dogfood sacks are good, too, for estimates. When I lost fifty pounds, somebody commented, "That's 50 one-pound packages of butter." I said, "Well, just imagine a 50-pound bag of dogfood." That's pretty gratifying to wake up each day and to realize I'm not carrying around that 50-pound sack of dogfood each step I take.
Sorry, of troy, to get off-track. I'm procrastinating going in to school to close out for the school year!
Barking regards,
WordWoof!
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Carpal Tunnel
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No your right on track! well maybe the 7/11 is a bit weirds, and somewhat localized.. but i remember gas stations being a reference, and now days in NY, you could use starbucks or duane/reades.. a local drug store chain.. (there are 5 with in 5 blocks!)
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how about a country mile
or as tall as corn in July?
or knee high to a grasshopper?
or so wide, she had to come in the door sideways?
bigger than a barn?
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Carpal Tunnel
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When we want to say that a child (girl) is really small we'll say "elle est petite comme une puce" - she's small like a flea.
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old hand
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When my roommate was a child, he would see his grandfather only occasionally. The typical remarks of "Why, how big you've gotten!" would ensue, and Gramps always said "You weigh the same as a wildcat!" I can just imagine my roomie strutting around proudly... "I weigh as much as a wildcat! Wow!" - it took him until he was about 12 to realize what was going on.  No reason to change the bait if the fish keep bitin'.
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Carpal Tunnel
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quick as a wink.  slow as poke. tea so strong a mouse could walk on it. Tight as a tick. Thick as a plank. Dumb as a rock. Sick as a dog. Sly as a fox. Loose as a goose. Sharp as a tack. Bright as a penny. Slick as spit. Thin as a rail. Fat as a goose. Notice how many involve animals like : dog tired? Got any to add to the animal list? And if you want your very own real old fashion bread box --They really do keep bread fresh longer -- you can get one at The Vermont Country Store along with a lot of great things you can't hardly get anymore. The catalogues are more fun than a comic book. http://www.thevermontcountrystore.comIt occurs to me that these are totally out of Helen's proposed context. I think I will go have my nap now.
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veteran
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No reason to change the bait if the fish keep bitin'. I'll have to think of a way to reuse this one, FB. Love it.
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old hand
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old hand
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tea so strong a mouse could walk on it.
Or as they say on The Rock (Newfoundland, b'y!): Tea strong enough to trot a mouse.
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
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