Reader Opinions
David – (smell a rat) January 10, 2021
Smelt a rat OR Smelled a rat?
Smell has both an irregular and regular form. You can use both and both are correct. Brits use smelled and smelt interchangeably, but speakers in North America rarely use smelt.
But which is the most used one? Let´s look at Google Ngram Viewer tool which displays a graph showing how phrases have occurred in a corpus of books over the years.
Let´s look at the current online media:
New project to find out what Europe smelt like from 16-20th century – [BBC]
Yaoumbaev told CNN he smelt something extremely unpleasant –[CNN]
Roger Balchin – (year dot) January 10, 2021
I would have thought that the expression ‘The year dot’ might be referring to year Zero, which in Arabic script is a dot (.) or cipher in Arabic.
Kurian – (stone’s throw) January 10, 2021
A stone’s throw distance is mentioned in the bible. So it’s an old idiom.
At that time stoning to death was a common capital punishment. Those throwing stones have to keep a certain distance so that the one on the other side should not get stoned. Moreover, stoning was enjoyed by people so if the prey dies easily, there is no fun.
Probably one can have some reference from the old Greek or roman literature.
Barbara Jean Peterson – (six of one, half a dozen of the other) January 10, 2021
It doesn’t matter what half you take it still equal the same.
Brocode – (fake it till you make it) January 9, 2021
I heard this idiom in a latest movie, so it may get common now.
Anonymous – (add fuel to the flames) January 7, 2021
As I tried to explain to my mother about the broken vase, my sister popped up and tried to add fuel to the fire by complaining about how I broke it.
This sentence should have been there.
Anonymous – (head over heels) January 7, 2021
He fell head over heels with his scooty.
zeke abrams – (to the nines) January 7, 2021
Your information about expressions, cliches and idioms is most valuable to me in my study of the English language. I truly appreciate your gift to the world.
Most sincerely,
zeke abrams
Rita – (a friend in need is a friend indeed) January 6, 2021
It means when someone wants something, they’ll do things for you.
Raincheck Baby – (rain check) January 6, 2021
Generally if someone asks for a rain check, they need to ask for permission to cash it in. That way the issuer of the rain check still has control of the event or situation.
