Reader Opinions
Manish – (draw the line) May 5, 2019
Drawing line has to be taken as installing a peripheral boundary to withhold something from passing across something.
Solomon David – (beauty is in the eye of the beholder) May 4, 2019
It is equivalent to the saying that “one man’s food is another man’s poison”
MWM age 66 – (not give a damn) May 1, 2019
it’s contracted from ‘I don’t give a tinker’s dam’. A tinker went from town to town mending cooking pots and pans. he would prepare the area around the hole in the pan and then build a wall of dough around the hole. He would then pour molten solder over the hole to mend it. when the solder dried, the residual dough would then be brushed away as useless. thus, not giving a tinker’s dam meant you didin’t care about something so completely worthless.
Anil Singh – (Adverbs) April 28, 2019
1. Sometimes, an adverb/adverbs may be used at the beginning of a sentence to modify the meaning of the sentence as a whole, instead of functioning as the modifier of a verb, adjective or another adverb – as, for example, in this sentence! Other examples:
Unfortunately, they were not at home when we called.
Regrettably, we shall not be able to accede to your request.
Slowly, inexorably, the enemy closed in on the isolated village.
2. Interestingly, a word may LOOK like a preposition but, in fact, function as an adverb: consider “in” after ‘closed in’ in the last example in (1) above; “in” is an adverb modifying ‘closed’, whereas ‘on’ is a preposition introducing the phrase “on the isolated village”. Then, again, there’s “Interestingly” at the head of this example …
Anonymous – (don’t look a gift horse in the mouth) April 27, 2019
I have requested that the said person join us on Tuesday 30 April rather than Monday. I trust that both Nikhil and Swati should be there to deal with this person? Who is likely to help us a lot! Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
Carbuncle – (well-to-do) April 25, 2019
Well-to-do Synonyms: You have “well-healed.” It’s actually/should be “well-HEELED.” I suggest fixing this.
Pete – (cut corners) April 23, 2019
This is incorrect. The origin is in agriculture. Cutting a corner whilst working a field gives the sense one has completed quicker and more efficiently, then to move on to the next t field quicker. However, there is no advantage in doing this and in fact it is detrimental if part of the crop hasn’t been sown/treated due to the cutting of corners.
Steve Walton – (everything but the kitchen sink) April 21, 2019
Seems like it would be the other way around: the only thing that people did NOT move with them when they shifted houses was the kitchen sink, which was plumbed in. I suggest this because when we bought out house, we learned that when the owners in the 70s moved out, they took everything, including the light fixtures in the front hall. And if you think about it, real estate listings will specify whether or not the sellers are leaving the washer/dryer, fridge, and so on. So, like the Beverley Hillbillies, “they loaded up the truck…”.
Onur – (keep at arm’s length) April 19, 2019
I always thought the sentence meant keeping someone nearby rather than distant.
Anonymous – (fortune favours the bold) April 18, 2019
This is a idiom which I usually tell myself during hard times. That there will be good times after the hard ones.
