The Meaning

Often time’s people use popular phrases without having a clue of the meaning, or what one is actually speaking. The clichés below are very familiar to most people. Do you know what they are really all about, or are you just guessing. The information provided below is adapted from James Rogers’s The Dictionary of Clichés.

If his grandmother knew of his behavior, she’d “turn over in her grave.” This meaning has to do with a shocking event that would go against the morals of someone dead. It came from James Payn’s 1864 book Lost Sir Mossingberd. “This holiday-making and mixture of high and low here, are themselves enough to make Sir Mossingberd turn in his grave.” 

That little girl of his has “ants in his pants.” This cliché has to do with excessive eagerness or restlessness. The former army general (Hugh S. Johnson) who headed the National Recover Administration from 1933-34 may be attributed with this popular phrase. “Full of beans” and “full of red ants” are synonymous in meaning.

It’s “raining cats and dogs” outside. Excessive rain brings about this phrase. In 1783, Jonathan Swift mentioned the phrase in his work, Polite Conversation. “I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs; but pray stay, Sir John.”

I ‘m “between a rock and hard spot” with this decision I need to make. All options are difficult no matter which way one turns. The 1921 Dialect Notes says, “to be bankrupt…Now it is common everywhere, and it means facing any hard choice, including bankruptcy.”

So the next time you utter something make sure you know what you are saying and why. It is a good thing to be informed with knowledge. It gives you the power you want and need for your life today.