Some of the phrase we use in day-to-day English are outrageous: to fly off the handle, to climb the walls, the coast is clear (even inland). Why do we say these things?
If the curiosity contains more than one word, this will be the forum to air it.
Idiomatic Phrases
- Dr. Goodword
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Idiomatic Phrases
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- Grand Panjandrum
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- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 8:24 am
- Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE
One of the things we learned as interns was to distinguish between two kinds of pain in acute abdominal cases - that in which the patient held him/herself rigid and unmoving, and that in which the patient, often quite literally, «climbed the walls». Stone passages were the canonical example of the latter, perforated ulcers of the former....
Henri
Henri
曾记否,到中流击水,浪遏飞舟?
Re: The coast is clear...
I see an image of children playing out the story from the matenee they just saw saying self-importantly, "The coast is clear.... " when trying to escape the bad-guys on the other team. (oh silly me, the kids are way too sophisticated for this these days, even the 6 yr olds)
It's just an expression like "Houston, we have a problem", or "Make my day" That is overused and said thoughtlessly.
Katy
I see an image of children playing out the story from the matenee they just saw saying self-importantly, "The coast is clear.... " when trying to escape the bad-guys on the other team. (oh silly me, the kids are way too sophisticated for this these days, even the 6 yr olds)
It's just an expression like "Houston, we have a problem", or "Make my day" That is overused and said thoughtlessly.
Katy
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