Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors

[telophase]

I thought of doing this after I shut the computer off last night, so I'm doing it now.

If you want your Very Own Traditional English Metaphor, give me a few ordinary nouns and/or verbs and I shall see if I can find a metaphor that incorporates, refers to, or otherwise is related to one of them. If I can't find a suitable one, I shall pick one at random.

Lift your undercarriage! (Be off with you! Get going!)

edit: If I get a lot of requests, it may take a day or two to get to all of them, since I have to do things like actual work (bah!).

Also, if you are open to NSFW and/or sexist-yet-silly/funny metaphors, please let me know. I won't knowingly give anyone one of those without knowing if it's ok to.

Comments

[yhlee]

Foxes
Guns
Swords
Geese

[telophase]

Goose-drownder - a cloudburst

And you get a bonus one because there are SO MANY goose metaphors!

As full of shit as a Christmas goose - Of one who talks much nonsense/is mistaken.

[yhlee]

Hahahaha!

I'm totally down for NSFW/not-politically-correct stuff as well. XD This book sounds delightful.

[telophase]

You can dive into it for HOURS. My only regret is that I'm not taking it to work to continue looking things up because it's 800+ pages and...well, I have no idea how many inches wide and long because I'm at work and it's at home, but it's not the sort of thing that's easy to carry around. XD

[telophase]

Oh, here's a sexist rhyme involving geese from 1350 or thereabouts: Many women, many words, many geese, many turds.

[yhlee]

That's almost kind of cute. And easily adapted not to be sexist. XD "Many Shuos, many words; many foxes, many turds"?

[telophase]

Perfect! XD

[jenett]

Horse
Book
Pen

Spinning (as in fiber)
Singing

Alternately, the colour blue.

(eee!)

[telophase]

Tell a tale to a mare and she'll let out a fart! - Waste breath on an unreceptive audience.

And you get an extra one as well:

She's spinning clues to the midden and wae to the wabster - a Scottish saying meaning she is doing as she likes and cares not for the future.

[conuly]

Webster = weaver, specifically female.

[jenett]

Those are great, thank you!

[telophase]

You're welcome! I love this book. All 800-ish pages of it. (about 1/3 of that is index, but that's still quite a lot!)

[nodrog]

*scribbles*

[conuly]

Louse

Lye

Lobster

Lift

[telophase]

He has boiled the lobster! --Left the church and joined the army (changing color from black to red).

And everyone appears to be getting an extra one because it's too much fun not to look more up.

Louse-ladder - a run in a woman's stocking, or a man's side whiskers.

[conuly]

I marvel at the idea that leaving the church to join the army was common enough that people used a idiom to describe it.

[larryhammer]

+1

[conuly]

Also, since you're having so much fun, do you mind if I link to you?

[telophase]

Go ahead! I'll edit to add that it might be a day or two before I get to all requests if there's a lot. :)

I should probably also request that people opt in to NSFW or sexist metaphors, since some of them are hilarious, but I don't want to surprise someone with one of those. (There was a lobster one that I loved but it was a bit too much on the racy side to post without warning! XD)

[conuly]

And done! (And I don't mind seeing the NSFW lobster one either.)

[telophase]

Excellent, because I love it:

He won't make a lobster-kettle of my cunt! - Of a soldier with whom the speaker does not wish to have intercourse.

One wonders how common this situation was...

[conuly]

Judging by ballads, very - and smart of the speaker to say no! It never ends well in songs.

[alexseanchai]

spin

weave

knit

hem

(NSFW cool)

[telophase]

Take up a loupen-steek [broken or dropped knitting stitch] - Remedy an evil (Scottish)

Wambly and slamp as a barrow-full of warp-sizing. Wambly-shaky, weak, feeble. Slamp-tottering. Warp-sizing, the dressing used on the warp threads. From Lancashire, I believe.

[alexseanchai]

😺

[radiantfracture]

Lurvely. If you have time, I'd be delighted. Any sort.

Hmm

Brambles / briars
Cheese
Buttons
Sleep

[telophase]

You'll never get from the bramble but a blackberry. (Irish)

Hasty as a sheep--as soon as the tail is up, the turd is out. (No attribution)

[redbird]

plate
cat
Tuesday

[telophase]

Cozy as a sick kitten on a hot brick.

Take your will of it, as the cat did of the haggis (Scottish, of course. Often to those who stubbornly persist in an unreasonable venture.)

[larryhammer]

These are awesome.

paper
fold
crumple

NSFW and otherwise dicy perfectly acceptable.

[telophase]

A man with a paper ass. (Amer. Someone whose opinions are dicey.)

Crumpled rose leaf. Slight vexation in the midst of felicity.

[larryhammer]

Bwah!

[greghousesgf]

goats
oranges

[telophase]

Orange-juice family. (One extended by divorce and new partners, because reconstituted.)

Do not mistake a goat's beard for a stallion's tail. (Ireland, advice to a girl about her suitors.)

[acelightning]

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<font color=purplelightning
chocolate
rabbits/bunnies
(no chocolate bunnies, thanks!)</font><br>

[telophase]

Not many chocolates left in the box (Hampshire. Not many years left to live.)

Would make a rabbit spit at a dog. (Ireland, of strong whiskey.)

[acelightning]

Thanks! Even the clean ones are fun!

I'm 71 years old. And I've got a box of chocolates sitting next to my computer ;-)

And I had a rabbit who would spit at, pounce on, or attempt to bite dogs, cats, other rabbits, and me :-)

[adafrog]

Here via Conuly. Mind if I friend you?

[telophase]

Sure, go ahead! :D

[adafrog]

:D