Meaning
When some one creates a problem or trouble we call it ‘Raising Cain’
Origin
According to Quran and Bible,Cain was the first murderer.This American phrase was used in 1840 by St. Louis’ Daily Pennant:
“Why have we every reason to believe that Adam and Eve were both rowdies? Because they both raised Cain.”
Meaning
This phrase is used when very heavy rains occur.
Origin
Stair-rods are the metal rods that hold stair-carpets, so this phrase symbolizes how it felt when too heavy rains occurred. It felt like metal rods are falling.
Meaning
When we have very heavy rainfall we use this phrase.
Origin
Not much is known about the origin but some say that in old times, when it rained heavily then street water carried dead bodies of cats and dogs and thus this phrase was coined. In1710 Tatler magazine printed a poem:
Now in contiguous Drops the Flood comes down,
Threat’ning with Deluge this devoted Town.
…
Now from all Parts the swelling Kennels flow,
And bear their Trophies with them as they go:
Filth of all Hues and Odours seem to tell
What Street they sail’d from, by their Sight and Smell.
They, as each Torrent drives, with rapid Force,
From Smithfield or St. Pulchre’s shape their Course,
And in huge Confluent join’d at Snow-Hill Ridge,
Fall from the Conduit, prone to Holbourn-Bridge.
Sweeping from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts, and Blood,
Drown’d Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench’d in Mud,
Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood.
Richard Brome’s comedy The City Wit or The Woman Wears the Breeches actually gave this term the present meaning:
“It shall raine… Dogs and Polecats”.
Meaning
When somebody puts too much pressure on mind to recall or understand something, we use this phrase.
Origin
Shakespeare used this in Twelfth Night, 1601:
“How haue the houres rack’d, and tortur’d me, Since I haue lost thee?”
William Beveridge’s Sermons, circa 1680 had this phrase as:
“They rack their brains… they hazard their lives for it.”
Meaning
When something is completely destroyed, we use this phrase.
Origin
In 1548, Ephraim Udall used it in a sermon:
“The flocke goeth to wrecke and vtterly perisheth.”
Henry Bull changed it to ‘wrack and ruin’ in his translation of Luther’s Commentarie upon the fiftene psalmes, 1577:
“Whiles all things seeme to fall to wracke and ruine.”
Thomas Fowler a famous oxford historian published ‘The history of Corpus Christi College’ and used it in present form:
“In the mean season the College shall goe to rack and ruin.”
Meaning
This phrase is used when someone talks too much.
Origin
The first citation is in the British writer Gerald Kersh’s wartime novel ‘They die with their boots clean’ 1941:
“He uses slang… Talk is Rabbit, or Rabbit-an’-Pork.”
Meaning
When we return something which is equally valuable to what we got, we use this phrase.
Origin
In 1991 a thriller movie ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins as Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter used this phrase as:
Hannibal Lecter: Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center. Sounds charming.
Clarice Starling: That’s only part of the island. There’s a very, very nice beach. Terns nest there. There’s beautiful…
Hannibal Lecter: Terns? If I help you, Clarice, it will be “turns” for us too. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?
Though some phrases which had same meaning were into use from 16th century but this came in writing much later.
Meaning
QT means quiet.
Origin
The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson states:
“A British broadside ballad (1870) contained the line ‘Whatever I tell you is on the Q.T.’”
Meaning
This is used for an unemployed person who uses state benefits.
Origin
This came up as a slang in UK since World War I.The Daily Mail in 1919 used it as:
“You won’t draw your out-of-work dole of 29s. this week.”
Meaning
This phrase is used when something is on the threshold that is between success and failure and slight change can lead to either a win or a loss.
Origin
The first citation was in 1970 in The Lima News:
“On the ‘bubble’ is rookie Steve Krisiloff whose 162.448 m.p.h. was the slowest qualifying speed last weekend. With only six spots open, Krisiloff’s machine would be ousted if seven cars qualified at a faster speed this week end.”