The Maple Leaf Rag

I'm sure that every language has idioms. English certainly has a lot. Over the next few blogs, I'll try to introduce some of them to you. Sometimes in English we don't use the full idiom. In the second one, for instance, we might just say 'Ah, you're trying 'the hair of the dog'. Everyone knows the rest of the idiom, we don't have to say it.

Here we go!

That's the tail wagging the dog - when something smaller than normal is controlling something much larger or more important. This could be students taking over a class from the teacher. 

The hair of the dog that bit you - an old cure for a hangover is drinking some alcohol the first thing in the morning while you are still hurting from the night before. The hair is the drink of alcohol in the morning. The dog that bit you is the large amount that you drank the night before. Usually used with alcohol and hangovers but could be used for other things, too. 

A snake in the grass - something bad that you can't see. A person who seems nice but is really an evil person underneath. 

Sunny side up - fried eggs that haven't been flipped or keeping happy in spite of setbacks. 

Over easy - fried eggs that have been flipped but are still soft and runny in the yolk. (not really an idiom but it fits with the one above. Over hard is flipped and cooked solid.)

Throwing the baby out with the bath water - getting rid of something that is bad and accidentally getting rid of something good with it. In a business situation, you wouldn't get rid of everyone in a company, you would keep the good employees and get rid of the bad. 

Reinventing the wheel - when you are designing something, you should use parts of things that have already been developed somewhere else, instead of designing something from the ground up or 'reinventing the wheel'.

Keeping up with the Jones's - buying or wanting something just to be equal to someone else. 

Jonesing - same thing as above but a newer and cooler version. Meng was jonesing for a new iPod because here friend had one. 

Don't get your knickers in a knot - don't panic, keep cool. Knickers are underwear in Britain but the idiom is used almost everywhere. 

It never rains but it pours - things seem to come in groups or in volume. You want something and then all of a sudden you get much more than you can use or need. 

Good things come in small packages - you can say this about a person who is short or small or you can say it about something small that is very useful. 

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts - based on the Trojan horse story, this means that you should be careful about a gift from someone who wouldn't normally give you a gift. Sometimes that gift isn't what you think it is. 

Never look a gift horse in the mouth - don't examine a gift that someone gives you, don't evaluate it, at least not in front of the person that gave it to you. It's based on the fact that a horse's age can be read from it's teeth so if someone gives you a horse, don't look in its mouth to see how old it is!

On the same page  - making sure you and another person are talking about the same thing at the same time. In a business meeting you sort out everything and start 'on the same page' when you discuss something. 

FIFO, LILO and FILO - not idioms really but economic or marketing terms. First in first out, last in first out and first in last out. These refer to warehousing or sales and have to do with product control. Milk and eggs, for instance, would be LILO, last in last out. There are probably other combinations. 

Kitty bar the door - could be used in football but usually in Canadian hockey, it means to play defensively instead of offensively. Instead of trying to score, a team which has a lead simply tries to prevent the other team from scoring. 

That's enough for now. Thanks for reading!