Say What? Expressions and Phrases in Our Language

Technology, custom and culture change with the times. Along the way, they spawn expressions that become an integral part of our language. Most of the time, the phrases outlive their roots. The next generation is at a lost trying to understand the meaning and origin of these expressions, sayings and phrases. It’s a conversation I often have with the younger members of our family, as I try to explain meanings and historic roots.


Take a look at the items below and see if you could help youngsters understand the commonly accepted meanings.


1. Asleep at the switch (or wheel)

2. Take a rain check

3. Pencil me in

4. Back to the drawing board

5. Beam me up, Scotty

6. Big Cheese

7. Carbon copy

8. Catch you on the flipside

9. Close, but no cigar

10. Cut to the chase

11. Dial her up

12. Drink the Kool-aid

13. Drop a dime

14. Film at 11

15. Full steam ahead

16. Get a pink-slip

17. Ground zero

18. Hit Parade

19. Hung out to dry

20. In a straitjacket

21. In like Flynn

22. In Technicolor

23. Left his calling card

24. Best thing since sliced bread

25. Let’s get cranking

26. My dance card is full

27. Put through the ringer

28. Off the hook

29. Pleased as punch

30. Push the envelope

31. Push the panic button

32. Over the top

33. Soap opera

34. Telegraph your punches

35. Sounds like a broken record

36. Take to the Woodshed

37. That and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee

38. That’s the $64 question

39. That’s all, folks

40. Watch the tube

41. Then the penny dropped

42. Tied to your mother’s apron strings

43. Wear the pants in the family

44. What a bummer

45. Better dead than Red

46. E-ticket

47. Came in over the transom

48. Over the top

49. X-rated

50. Like a Rube Goldberg


Having trouble? Check out http://www.phrases.org.uk/.


Source: AARP Bulletin, June 2010, Betsy Towner