Idiom Series

What does a carpenter have in common with a Roman comedy writer? Both knew that the best result comes from hitting exactly the right spot. One used a hammer. The other used words.

You may have seen it on an office wall, a dentist’s ceiling or a social media meme: a small kitten holding on to a bamboo pole with its front paws, its back legs dangling in the air. Underneath, three

Here’s a surprise. One of the writers most often credited with this famous saying about patience used it in a poem that doesn’t really believe it.

Who pays? It’s one of the most awkward questions at the end of a meal with friends, coworkers or a date. In English, there’s a short, friendly way to answer it: “Let’s go Dutch.”

Some idioms are centuries old, and nobody remembers who said them first. This one is different. We can point to the exact magazine page where it appeared: The New Yorker, 1 March 1941.

Search for the origin of the cold shoulder and you’ll probably find this story: in the old days, a welcome guest got a hot meal, but an unwelcome guest was served a cold, leftover shoulder of mutton.

Your coworker Sam promised to send you a file this morning. It’s now 2 p.m. and nothing has arrived. You could decide Sam is lazy. Or you could think, “Maybe something came up. Maybe the internet is d

On November 15, 1889, a Detroit newspaper called The Plaindealer, one of the African-American newspapers of the time, reported that local Democrats were “getting their ducks in a row” before an electi

Before we talk about what this idiom means, here’s a warning: be careful who you say it to.