![]() ![]() ![]() Meaning To divulge a secret, especially to do so inadvertently or maliciously. In this sense the expression also carried a hint of sarcastic envy or resentment, but since Since the meaning has broadened to be less sarcastic through use. Origin It has been suggested that the expression arose in Ireland after The Prime Minister Robert ‘Bob’ Cecil appointed his nephew, Arthur Balfour, as Chief Secretary 1887, something that was apparently surprising and unpopular. In the case of explaining Snapchat to your mum: ‘ All you have to do is take a photo, use the pen to draw a mustache, use the T button to add some words, select who you want to send it to, press the arrow and bob’s your uncle… did I mention it can only be viewed once?’ Meaning Generally used to conclude a set of simple instructions, it’s often used as a way explaining that the outcome is more easy to achieve than you thought. It comes from an Englishman who, after a fox hunt, got so drunk with his mates that they got hold of some paint and proceeded to literally paint the town red. Origin The phrase these days conjures thoughts of a merry good time, but that’s not where it started. ‘It’s #friyay and I’m going to paint the town red!’. Meaning This idiom means to go out and have a good a time. In what is now commonly called ‘the Jonestown Massacre’, 913 of the 1100 Jonestown residents drank the Kool-Aid and died. Jim Jones, the leader of the group, ordered his followers to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. It’s actually a rather morbid reference to the 1978 cult mass-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Origin Thought it had something to do with LL Cool J? Wrong. ‘Why do so many men have top knots these day? They’ve been drinking the Kool-aid’, Meaning This idiom refers to someone holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without analysing it properly. Paint the town red origin code#What would birthday cards be without idioms? Think of them as like speaking in a code that most people understand… unless of course you’re learning English, in which case idioms and their literal meanings will drive you insane.īut where do all our regularly used idioms originate? Here we’ve explored some of our favourite idioms and how they started. Idioms are often used a cultural references or indicators – they are able to give colour and flair to what we say in a way that speaking more directly doesn’t. In a nutshell, an idiom is a description or sentence that, through lots of people using it, means something different than its literal translation. noun meaning: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. ![]()
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