Meaning
Used for people who are very efficient and perform the duties as required.
Origin
The earliest citation of the phrase is in The African Memoranda, a report of an expedition to Guinea Bissau, by Philip Beaver, 1805:
“Hayles has been my most useful man, but of late not worth his salt.”
Meaning
it is used when someone is not willing to approach near the person or thing.
Origin
The phrase was first recorded in Edward Farmer’s Scrap book in1846:-
Barge-pole – A large stick or thick bough. Also generally used for any large piece of wood.
Meaning
You can not get things which are originally nor present.
Origin
Giovanni Torriano’s Second Alphabet, 1662:
“To go about to fetch bloud out of stones, viz. to attempt what is impossible.”
Meaning
When a person is not proved guilty and is released without punishment, this phrase is used.
Origin
In 1764, Roger L’Estrange published a collection of Seneca’s essays under the title of Seneca’s Morals by Way of Abstract, which included this line:
What (says he) Shall I live in Trouble and Danger myself, and the Contriver of my Death – walk free, and secure?
Meaning
An ordered command in which victims were blindfolded and then forced to walk on a wooden plank directly into sea with both hands tied and thus eventually killing them.
Origin
In 1769 George Wood confessed in prison that he and his shipmates had forced others to walk the plank so that he can kill them and get rid of the bodies.
Meaning
Used when some one holds the responsibility or is made incharge
Origin
The Manitoba Daily Free Press used the term in November 1880:
“The squaws are very beautiful and are as fond of ornaments as Indian women usually are. The women are called ladies and they sometimes wear the trousers or boss the white Indians, their husbands.”
Meaning
When some one shows off his or her emotions openly we use this phrase.
Origin
Shakespeare’s Othello, 1604 had this phrase:
Iago:
It is sure as you are Roderigo,
Were I the Moor, I would not be Iago:
In following him, I follow but myself;
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty,
But seeming so, for my peculiar end:
For when my outward action doth demonstrate
The native act and figure of my heart
In compliment extern, ’tis not long after
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve
For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.
Meaning
It means saying irrelevant things to divert attention from main issue.
Origin
Stewart Chaplin’s story Stained glass political platform has this phrase:
“Why, weasel words are words that suck the life out of the words next to them, just as a weasel sucks the egg and leaves the shell.”
Meaning
Dorothy Parker used it and it means you can not force some one to do work as per your wishes.
Origin
This was used for derogatory humor sometimes.
Meaning
This phrase is used for people who need the hairs combed.
Origin
The Manitoba Morning Free Press, February 1910:
There are husbands who do their wives no credit. Before you have time to get your hat on and show them to an admiring world… they look as if they had been dragged through a hedge backwards.