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Raining cats and dogs
Another theory suggests that thunder and lightning represent a cat and
dog fight.
Yet another traces the origin of the phrase to ideas in ancient mythology
that cats could influence the weather, and that dogs were a symbol of the
wind.
This phrase goes back many hundreds of years to the Dark Ages.
The cat was thought by sailors to have a lot to do with storms.
Witches that were believed to ride in the storms were often pictured as
black cats.
Dogs and wolves were symbols of winds and the Norse storm god Odin was
frequently shown surrounded by dogs and wolves. In the phrase "raining
cats and dogs", cats symbolize the rain and dogs represent the wind of
the storm. ______________________________________________________________________________
Raise the roof
That reprimand was completely lost on me. I asked my grandmother why
he was going to raise the roof. She told me it was just a figure of speech -
a comical suggestion that someone will explode in anger thus raising the roof. ______________________________________________________________________________
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Read between the lines
Obviously a courier delivering a blank piece of paper was a bit of a
give-away, so the author of the message would write a seemingly innocuous
letter in ink and then write the secret message in the spaces in between.
The recipient would then have to treat the letter and read between the
lines of the letter to get to the real message. ______________________________________________________________________________
Reading the riot act
The Bobbies would approach the crowd, read the Riot Act aloud: "Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth
and commandeth all persons assembled immediately to disperse themselves and peacefully to depart
to their habitations or to their lawful business." If the crowd didn't disperse, they were arrested. ______________________________________________________________________________
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Red carpet
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Red herring
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Red letter day
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Red light district
The term originated around 1900 and seems to have come about from visiting
railroaders leaving their lanterns on the porch of the cat house while
conducting business inside.
Red lanterns where required equipment for all railroad crew members,
with the possible exception of the engineer. Prior to 1900, a train would
likely have an engineer, conductor, fireman, and two or more brakemen (brakes
being manually applied on a car by car basis). They were used for
signaling as well as lighting, since red light does not affect night vision
as much as white.
A train being brought into a yard would have its crew surrounding it,
most carrying red lanterns to signal the engineer that all was well. They
would then use these same lanterns to illuminate their path to wherever
they chose to go.
And the question is why did the railroaders leave the lanterns on the
porch? Apparently to indicate to other prospective visitors
that the venue was in use. ______________________________________________________________________________
Red tape
The tradition continued through to the 17th and 18th century. Although Charles Dickens is believed to have used the phrase before Thomas Carlyle, the English practice of binding documents and official papers with red tape was popularized in the writings of Carlyle protesting against ’official inertia’ with expressions like “Little other than a red tape Talking-machine”, and “unhappy Bag of Parliamentary Eloquence”. To this day, most barristers’ briefs are tied in a pink-coloured ribbon known as “pink tape” or “legal tape”. Government briefs are usually bound with white tape, introduced as an economy measure to save the expense of dyeing the tape red.
During World War II, newspapers published a series of articles called the “Society of Red Tape Cutters”, intending to commend those indiviudals who kept bureaucracy (i.e. red tape) from deterring the war effort. Recipients for the award included Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz. Since then, other groups have taken the same name, including a 'Society of Red Tape Cutters' in Northfield, Illinois - volunteers who help senior citizens get government services. ______________________________________________________________________________
Right as rain
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Ring of truth
A bell that rings true is one the rings at the correct note. Something
that rings true is correct. ______________________________________________________________________________
Ring the changes
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Rings a bell
Before electric sirens and amplification systems, bells were a valuable means of signaling people and alerting of important events.
Further, accurate timepieces were not always as available as they are today. Bells were used to signal people of the start of events such as a church session, the start of school, or a celebration. The bells acted as a reminder of the start of the event for people who had an out of synch timepiece or no timepiece. Someone would literally ring a bell as a reminder.
As an aside bells were later used on clocks to mark the hour. A large clock usually in the town square could be heard throughout the town. This clock acted as a master time reference for the town. The hourly bell ringing gave people an opportunity to synchronize their respective timepieces, and early watches required frequent adjustment.
Alternative: There are many bells that ring to remind or instruct us to do things: doorbell (open the door), telephone bell (pick up the phone), school bell (come to class), toaster bell (take out the toast), and the clothes dryer bell (take out the clothes). So, if something such as a face, a name, a number, or a date "rings a bell," it causes you to remember something. ______________________________________________________________________________
Roll with the punches
The technique is to move away from the punch in an attempt to avoid
the blow or at least create a glancing blow. A glancing blow being preferable
to a direct hit. ______________________________________________________________________________
Room to swing a cat
The "cat" is a cat-of-nine-tails, a type of whip used to discipline
sailors on old sailing ships. The cat-of-nine-tails has one
handle to which is attached nine thin strips of leather, each perhaps three
feet long. The cat-of-nine-tails would be used to administer lashings that
would sting and leave welts on the recipient.
The whippings would take place on the deck, because below deck there
was not enough ceiling height to swing a cat-of-nine-tails.
Interestingly, the Disney cartoon character Mickey Mouse once gave a
graphic illustration with some comic relief to this phrase. In the 1920's
"Steamboat Willie" was release as Mickey Mouse's first cartoon. There is
a scene in the cartoon in which Mickey is on a boat. He proceeds to pick
up a cat and swing it around by the tail. Apparently this particular boat
had enough room to swing a cat.
Alternative: The phrase has been traced back to the century before the cat o'nine tails was invented.
The correct explanation appears to be in some doubt, but most likely DOES refer to an actual cat.
Thanks to
Carolyn Grinberg. ______________________________________________________________________________
Round robin
The "round" part of the phrase is clear. The "robin" less so.
This may just be alliteration. Alliteration is two or more neighboring
words in a phrase that start with the same letter and is constructed largely
because it sounds good. It is a type of rhyme ______________________________________________________________________________
Round the bend
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Rub it in
Alternative: Refers to the action of rubbing a fluid onto an object to make the fluid
penetrate. As in rubbing a lotion into skin. ______________________________________________________________________________
Rube Goldberg contraption
Related phrase: Heath Robinson Solution. ______________________________________________________________________________
Rule of thumb
Most old English measures of distance were based on the body measurements
of the king - the length of the foot, inch (thumb tip to first knuckle),
cubit (elbow-to-fingertip), and yard (nose-to-fingertip).
Alternative: This term may stem from the ancient use of the last joing of the
thumb as a measuring device for roughly one inch.
Alternative: Old English law (and potentially early American law) declared that it
was okay for a man to beat his wife but had to use a stick no larger in
diameter than his thumb.
Alternative: Brewmasters of old often tested the temperature of a batch of beer
by dipping a thumb in the brew - their long experience telling them how well the
beer was brewing.
There is no truth to the rumor that this law was an early start to the
women's rights movement. ______________________________________________________________________________
Run the gamut
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Run the gauntlet
Send your additions, corrections/typos or new phrases/clichés to joe-ks.com |
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