Nosotros frequently say things that have a specific meaning, yet we don't know the history backside the saying. Here are 30 of those. Many others take disputed histories, such as "in the weeds," "rule of thumb," and "back to square one" -- whereas others are simply unknown. If whatever are missing, feel free to add together them past commenting below.

  1. "Bawl up the wrong tree..." Hunting dogs frequently chase animals up trees, only to have the animal jump to a branch on another tree to try to escape. If the dog misses this happening, it would so be barking up the incorrect tree.
  2. "Beat around the bush..." This was originally a phrase to depict the practice of hunters who would beat around bushes to flush out birds.
  3. "Phone call a spade a spade..." This one has nothing to exercise with playing cards, and instead is based on a less frequently used name for a type of shovel.
  4. "Tin't have your cake and eat it too..." I ever institute this one confusing, but information technology's based on the idea that one time you lot consume your cake, it'due south gone (i.e., you then "tin can't accept your cake").
  5. "Can't concord a candle..." Aprentices-and even children!-were frequently tasked with belongings a candle so experienced workers could come across. It was an insult if yous were accounted unworthy of even holding a candle.
  6. "Scrap on your shoulder..." In the 19th century, someone looking for a fight would walk around with a chip of wood on their shoulder. Someone could take them up on the challenge to fight by knocking the forest off their shoulder.
  7. "Close, but no cigar..." Fairgrounds once gave out cigars every bit prizes (before stuffed animals), and though y'all could come shut, you had to win to get a cigar.
  8. "Cook the books..." This is based on the thought that the numbers are altered, just as cooking will alter food.
  9. "Cutting corners..." This is based on the notion of being able to move faster by cutting diagonally across a space. For math lovers, this is Pythagoreans theorem in activity.
  10. "Cut to the hunt..." This is an old cinematic phrase. When there was a movie with too much dialogue, people wanted to go to the more interesting scenes, which oftentimes involved a chase. Picture show producers would then say cutting to the chase to hear virtually the more exciting parts of a script.
  11. "Dead in the water..." This is derived from a nautical term based on a ship that would remain motionless when in that location was no wind for the sales. Now it is used to describe a lack of progress.
  12. "Drop of a hat..." During the American borderland days, the dropping of a hat was used to signify the start of something, often a fight. This has evolved into its electric current meaning of moving quickly.
  13. "Foot the bill..." The bottom (i.e., foot) of the page is where the total corporeality is placed. This resulted in determining who will cover the human foot of the pecker.
  14. "Go belly up..." A company that dies goes belly up, merely like a dead fish in the water.
  15. "Heard information technology through the grapevine..." This has zippo to practise with existent grapes, and is derived from the fact that telegraph wiring resembled grapevines. When receiving a telegram, people received the message via this electronic grapevine.
  16. "Hot potato..." Potatoes were baked in fires before ovens, and had to be handled with caution when removed from the embers.
  17. "In the purse..." This started with the New York Giants baseball squad and the superstition they had that they would win the game if they put a ball in a bag and walked off with it in in that location when they had the lead.
  18. "Bound through hoops..." You have to jump through hoops to get something done or please someone, just similar circus animals practice to please their trainers.
  19. "Acquire the ropes..." New sailors had to learn knots and ropes on their send, only equally a new employees needs to acquire virtually their office.
  20. "Let the cat out of the purse..." Centuries agone piglets were sold in bags; folktale tells it that unscrupulous vendors would try to substitute a cat in the pocketbook instead since these were more plentiful. If the buyer opened the bag earlier the purchase the vendors' secret would then be known.
  21. "Pass the buck..." In the 1800s, a knife was often used to signal whose plough was coming up to bargain in poker. Knife handles were frequently built with buck antler, hence pass the buck. Annotation, the similar "the buck stops hither" evolved from this to point that there would exist no more passing of responsibility.
  22. "Pull the wool over you eyes...." Back when leaders and politicians wore powdered wigs, pulling this wool over their eyes was slang for when they were blinded to facts.
  23. "Push the envelope..." This is not based on an actual envelope, and instead comes from the globe of aviation. Pilots will button an airplanes flight envelope to understand its performance limits.
  24. "Security blanket..." The original security blankets where clipped to babies' cribs in order to prevent them from falling out. A security blanket now refers to something that gives someone a sense of comfort or protection.
  25. "Steal your thunder..." This came from playwright John Dennis in the early on 1700s. One of his plays was not well received, but his cutting edge sound effects for thunder were; he soon establish that others had copied the effect and "stolen his thunder."
  26. "Direct from the horses mouth..." When considering purchasing a equus caballus a buyer would want to know it's age, and the most accurate way to exercise so was to look at it'due south teeth.
  27. "Take information technology with a grain of table salt..." Food is easier to swallow with a small amount of salt, and this evolved into taking news with a grain of table salt to make it more palatable to receive.
  28. "Remember outsize of the box..." This origin of this does not have to practise with an actual box. Information technology is instead based on the "ix dots puzzle" where the 9 dots are arranged in a box shape; to solve information technology you must think outside of traditional logic.
  29. "You're fired..." This is about employees worst fearfulness, and the roots can be traced to the early 1900s at National Cash Register. Fable has it founder John Patterson sent an employee out on a business call and when he was gone put his desk-bound outside and set information technology on fire to signify that he no longer had a chore when he returned.
  30. "The writing is on the wall..." This is derived from the Volume of Daniel and writing that appeared on the palace wall in Babylon predicting the pending doom of the kingdom.