Semevent

Idiom America

Society EN ↓ 46 episodes

A podcast that takes a look at the origin and history of some of those gems of language, idioms, and then goes from there.

Author

Semevent

Episodes

Flower Idioms: Gild the lily; Paint the lily; Lily-white; Lily-livered; Pushing up daisies; Whoops-a-daisy; Ups-a-daisy; Fresh as a daisy; Shrinking Violet; Wallflower 26.08.2025 17:55

Pigeon-livered; Oops-a-daisy; Oops; Whoops.

Butterfly and butter idioms, and suck it up buttercup! -- Butterflies in your stomach; social butterfly; the butterfly effect; suck it up buttercup; butter wouldn't melt in one's mouth; 07.08.2025 19:35

Gaudy as a butterfly; break a butterfly on a wheel; kill a gnat with a sledgehammer; bread always falls on the buttered side; bread and butter; butterface; butter someone up

Hook Idioms: By hook or by crook; On tenterhooks; Hooking up; Hookers; Get you hooks into somebody; Meathooks; Swallow something hook, line, and sinker; Wriggle off the hook; Off the Hook; On the Hook 31.07.2025 17:21

Let someone off the hook; Ringing off the hook; Wriggle out of

Pig Idioms: Pig in a Poke; Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered; Hogwash; You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear; Lipstick on a pig; wrestling with pigs; Happy as a pig in mud 24.07.2025 15:12

Don't cast your pearls before swine; Like pigs in clover; Go hog wild; Hog heaven; Greedy pig; Pig out; Eat like a pig; Make a pig of oneself; Selfish pig; Go whole hog

Cycling Idioms: Along for the ride; Backpedal; Freewheeling; Take off the training wheels; Fifth wheel or third wheel; Shift gears; Spin one's wheels; Back in the saddle; Handlebar moustache; 12.05.2024 18:37

Woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle; Just like riding a bike; Soft-pedal; Cyclopath

Stick Idioms: Short end of the stick; Get hit with the stupid stick; Fiddlesticks!; Wrong end of the stick; Stick in the mud; Beat them off with a stick; 02.05.2024 15:22

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick; Speak softly and carry a big stick; More XYZ than you can shake a stick at;.

Moon Idioms: Moonstruck; Moonshine; Once in a blue moon; Moonlight; Hang the moon; Shoot for the moon; Mooning away, over, around, or about; 21.04.2024 24:16

Over the moon; The moon is made of green cheese; Love you to the moon and back; Shoot the moon; Moonshot; Ask for the moon; Moon on a stick; Cast beyond the moon; Barking at the moon; Harvest moon; Blood moon; Moon-faced; Moongazing

Pots and Pans Idioms, Part II: Pot calling the kettle black; Melting pot; Stirring the pot; Jackpot; Crackpot; Different kettle of fish; Tempest in a teapot; Keep the pot boiling; Potluck 04.11.2023 19:31

Potpourri; Perpetual stew; Potlatch; Pot of gold at the end of a rainbow; Tosspot; Fusspot; Honeypot; Sexpot; Pretty kettle of fish

Pots and Pans Idioms, Part I: Flash in the pan; Out of the frying pan into the fire; Pan out; Pan over; Pan as criticism; Deadpan; Going to pot; Potshot 20.10.2023 13:04

Pothunter; Down the pan; Down the toilet; Cast iron skillets

US President Idioms, Part 6: Bloviation; Normalcy; America First; Lightning in a bottle; Americanism; Founding Fathers 07.10.2023 20:16

Dollar Diplomacy; Panda Diplomacy; Writing history with lightning; Bottled lightning; THE Congress

Gauntlets, Gamuts, and Gloves: Run the gauntlet; Run the gamut; Throw down the gauntlet; Take up the gauntlet; Step into the breach; Take off the gloves; Rule with a velvet glove 18.09.2023 13:29

Once more unto the breach; More honored in the breach than the observance; Drop the gloves; Gloves are off; Iron fist in a velvet glove; Next into the breach; Run the gantlet

Foreign Idioms: Neither the fuzz nor the feather; When the crawdad whistles on the mountain; Boondocks; Thresh empty straw; Once upon a time and other fairy tale endings 09.09.2023 17:41

Ни пуха ни пера, Break a leg; Когда рак на горе свистнет, When pigs fly; Делать из мухи слона, Make a mountain out of a molehill; Не в своей тарелке, Not in one’s element, or like a fish out of water; Первый блин всегда комом; Prvi se mačići u vodu bacaju; Bogu iza nogu; Ne traži dlaku u jajetu; Mlatiti praznu slamu, Beat a dead horse; There’s no cow on the ice; Go pick mushrooms; The carrots are...

Sick Idioms and Slang: Under the weather; Green around the gills; To turn a blind eye; Frog in the throat; Feeling groggy; Off-kilter; Out-of-sorts; Down in the dumps; Sick as a dog 03.06.2023 17:39

Slang: Bussin'; Slappin; Slay; 'Sup; Aight; Word; Hella; Shiznit; The bomb; Booyah; Oh snap; As if; Not!; Whatever!

Veggie Idioms: Can't squeeze blood from a turnip; Fell off the turnip truck; Cornfed; Corny; Carrot-and-stick; Like peas and carrots; Two peas in a pod 20.05.2023 16:10

Can't get blood from a stone; Fresh off the boat; Cabbage-head; Turnip-head; I don't boil my cabbage twice; I'm not so green as cabbage looking; Cornbread; Cornball; Hokey; Easy as shelling peas; Thick as pea soup

Tool Idioms: Wrench in the works; Monkeywrench; If all you have's a hammer everything's a nail; Hit the nail on the head; Go at it hammer and tongs; Bring the hammer down 06.05.2023 14:34

Use a sledgehammer to crack a nut; Throw a spanner in the works; Bodies upon the gears; Maslow's hammer; Between the hammer and the anvil; Between a rock and a hard place; Drop the hammer on; Go under the hammer; Dumb as a bag of hammers; Dumb as a box of rocks; Not the sharpest tool in the shed; Sledgehammer argument; Poor craftsman that blames his tools; Tools of the trade; Tool around

Coincidences and Rubbing Idioms: There's the rub; Shuffle off this mortal coil; Rub it in; Rub someone the wrong way; Rub salt in someone's wound; Rub elbows with; Rub off on 14.04.2023 17:38

Rub shoulders with; Rub your hands with glee; Rub of the green; Rub out; Rub someone's nose in it; Ruffle someone's feathers

Bean Idioms: Spill the beans; Bean counter; Doesn't amount to a hill of beans; Full of beans; Cool beans; Politics ain't bean bag 01.04.2023 14:58

Old bean; Bean time; Bean wagon; Not have a bean; String bean; Beanpole; Bean head; Not know beans; Boring as beans

Heel Idioms: Well-heeled; Down-at-the-heels; Achilles' heel; Dig in one's heels; Bring someone to heel; Under the heel; Take to one's heels; Show one's heels; Kick up your heels; Cool one's heels; 19.03.2023 17:59

Out at elbows; Out at heels; Drag your heels; Set back on your heels; At someone's heels; Hard on someone's heels; Hot on someone's heels; Under the thumb; Show a clean pair of heels; Cop a heel; Spin on one's heels; Turn on your heels; Fall head over heels in love; Head over heels in debt; Real heel

Hat Idioms, Part II: I'll eat my hat; Feather in your cap; Tip of the hat; Doff one's hat; Pass the hat; With hat in hand; Hat trick; At the drop of a hat; All hat and no cattle 07.03.2023 16:02

Hats off; Old hat; All sizzle and no steak; All bark and no bite

Hat Idioms: Mad as a hatter; Hang one's Hat; To throw your hat into the ring; Keep something under your hat; Put your name in the hat; Put your thinking cap on; Dunce cap 26.02.2023 18:44

Hang up one's hat; Tin foil hat; Hang on to your hat; To wear more than one hat; Pooh-bah

Egg Idioms: Egg on your face; Egghead; Baker's dozen; Egg someone on; Nest egg; Can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs; Good egg; Go suck an egg 16.02.2023 20:44

Bad egg; Don't put all your eggs in one basket; Egg money; Bald as an egg; Which came first, the chicken or the egg; Over-egg the pudding; Egging; Teaching your grandma to suck eggs; Rotten egg; Last one in is a rotten egg; Can't boil an egg; Can't unboil an egg.

Smoke Idioms: Smoke and mirrors; Put that in your pipe and smoke it; Blowing smoke; Smoking gun; Where there's smoke there's fire; Get smoked; Pipe-dream 05.02.2023 17:24

Blowing smoke up someone's ass; Smoke the peace pipe; Smokescreen; Holy smoke(s); What have you been smoking

Duck Idioms: Lucky duck; Sitting duck; Dead duck; Lame duck; Duck and cover; Have one's ducks in a row; Duck soup; Like a duck to water; Milkshake duck 26.01.2023 16:55

Since one was knee-high to a duck; Lovely weather for ducks; Like water off a duck's back; Duck face; If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and swims like a duck, then it must be a duck.

Bird Idioms: Birds of a feather; Bird in the hand; A little bird told me; Sing like a bird; Boobird; Odd bird; Rare bird; Kill two birds with one stone 19.01.2023 17:27

Flip the bird; Tough old bird; Yardbird; Snowbird; Anapodoton; Black swan

Blade Idioms: Sword of Damocles; Hang by a thread; Fall on one's sword; Beat swords into plowshares; Saber-rattling; Bury the hatchet; Hatchet job; 08.01.2023 15:48

Take up the hatchet; Hatchet man; Hatched-faced; Scalpel, not an ax