Vote for the top 10. When making your vote think about things like... Have you used it. Has it changed your life in any way. Have you heard it over and over again. What will you pass on to your children. Will this phrase continue into the next century and be passed down from one genration to the next, is it popular, and will it continue to have meaning. Whatever phrases win I'll dig up the origins and meaning for you. Feel Free to add your own. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link A fool and his money are soon parted A good man is hard to find A house divided against itself cannot stand A leopard cannot change its spots A penny saved is a penny earned A picture paints a thousand words A place for everything and everything in its place A woman's place is in the home A woman's work is never done Actions speak louder than words All good things come to he who waits All things must pass All's fair in love and war An apple a day keeps the doctor away Beauty is in the eye of the beholder Beggars can't be choosers Better late than never Better safe than sorry Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all Birds of a feather flock together Blood is thicker than water Boys will be boys Count you blessings Do unto others as you would have them do unto you Don't bite the hand that feeds you Don't count your chickens before they are hatched Don't cross the bridge till you come to it Don't put all your eggs in one basket Don't try to walk before you can crawl Easy come easy go Every dark cloud has a silver lining Every dog has his day Finders keepers, losers weepers First things first Flattery will get you nowhere Good things come to those who wait Great minds think alike Hard work never did anyone any harm He who laughs last laughs longest He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword Hindsight is always twenty-twenty History repeats itself Home is where the heart is If God had meant us to fly he'd have given us wings If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again If you can't beat em, join em If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen It goes without saying It never rains but it pours It takes one to know one It's better to give than to receive It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all It's never too late It's not worth crying over spilt milk It's the early bird that gets the worm It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease Keep your chin up Laughter is the best medicine Let bygones be bygones Let sleeping dogs lie Let the punishment fit the crime Life is what you make it Lightening never strikes twice in the same place Like father, like son Love is blind Make love not war Misery loves company Money doesn't grow on trees Money makes the world go round Money talks Never judge a book by its cover Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today Nothing is certain but death and taxes Oil and water don't mix One good turn deserves another Opportunity only knocks once Out of sight, out of mind Possession is nine tenths of the law Practise makes perfect Put your best foot forward Revenge is a dish best served cold Rome wasn't built in a day Stupid is as stupid does Talk is cheap That which does not kill us makes us stronger The darkest hour is just before the dawn The ends justify the means The exception which proves the rule The more things change, the more they stay the same The pen is mightier than sword The way to a man's heart is through his stomach There's no place like home There's no smoke without fire There's no time like the present There's one born every minute Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it To err is human, to forgive divine To the victor goes the spoils Tomorrow never comes Too many cooks spoil the broth Truth is stranger than fiction Two heads are better then one Two wrongs don't make a right Where there's a will there's a way Worrying never did anyone any good You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar Bad egg Back seat driver Come hell or high water Cut off your nose to spite your face Diamond in the rough - A Diamond is forever - A Dog days Eat drink and be merry End of story Face the music Feeding frenzy Fly by the seat of your pants Fly on the wall From sea to shining sea Full of piss and vinegar Get off on the wrong foot Get used to it Hell has no fury like a woman scorned Hit the ground running Hit the hay I have not slept one wink I will wear my heart upon my sleeve Is the Pope Catholic? Just in time Knock on wood Know the ropes Know which way the wind blows Less is more Let there be light Let your hair down Level playing field Like the Dickens Middle of the road Much Ado about Nothing Never the twain shall meet New kid on the block Not playing with a full deck O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo Old lang syne One for the road Out of sight, out of mind Paint the town red Pie in the sky Play it again Sam Play the race card Politically correct Pop goes the weasel Put a sock in it Put your best foot forward Quality time Raining cats and dogs Read the riot act Rhyme nor reason Rise and shine Rule of thumb Run amuck Share and share alike Ship shape and Bristol fashion **** for brains Sleep tight Smoke and mirrors Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue Son of a gun Sour grapes Space, the final frontier Stand and deliver Straight from the horse's mouth Stumped Survival of the fittest Suspension of disbelief Swan song Take a back seat Take down a peg or two The Best laid schemes of mice and men The bitter end The blind leading the blind The buck stops here The call of the wild The customer is always right The die has been cast The live-long day The love of money is the root of all evil The root of the matter The **** hits the fan The status quo The third degree There's more than one way to skin a cat There's one born every minute Things that go bump in the night Third time's a charm This is the short and the long of it Three strikes and you are out Thou shalt not kill Tie the knot Till the cows come home Tomorrow is another day Too much of a good thing To be or not to be Two cents worth Wet behind the ears Win one for the Gipper Wing it A sorry sight As dead as a doornail Flesh and blood We have seen better days
Sports cliches are the worst... "Give 110%" "Take it one game at a time" "you can't teach height" "the better team won today" "we need a change of direction" "closer than the final score indicated" "this is a good team on paper" ...and, of course, my favorite sports cliche of all time..."He's really long"...
I've used it, and I remember the origin (I don't see it on your list) "the whole nine yards" Roxran probably knows the origin too.
i love it when craig biggio says, "well..ya know..once again..that's baseball...that's how it goes." and i say that as a big craig biggio fan!
Doesn't it come from WWII where soldiers used the whole chain of bullets for a particular gun (gatling gun, maybe), and the length of the ammo was nine yards? Anyways, my favorite saying is, "I'd tell ya, but then I'd have to kill ya."
Origin Of all the feedback that The Phrase Finder site gets this is the phrase that causes the most feedback and the most disagreement. At the outset it should be said that no one knows the origin, although many have an fervent belief that they do. These convictions are unfailingly based on no more evidence than 'someone told me'. It is most likely that, like many phrases, it originated in colloquial use and has been appropriated as a general term meaning full measure in many different contexts. There are many things that can be measured in yards, so there are many plausible explanations of the phrase's origin. Regrettably, plausibility isn't enough. The earliest known reference to the phrase in print is as recent as 1967 in 'The Doom p***y', a novel about the Vietnam War by Elaine Shepard. In that context the phrase refers to the difficulties a character has with unentangling himself from an unwanted marriage. It isn't clear if the author coined the phrase herself, although the manner of its use in the story would suggest not. Ms. Shepard died in September 1998, so perhaps we will never know. It does seem possible that the phrase was in use by WWII and I have several correspondents who claim relatives who remember using it in the US and British forces then. Once phrases are in common use though they do tend to appear in print within a year or two. The lack of any printed copy prior to 1967 supports the view that it originated in the 1960s. These are some of the versions going the rounds: without evidence one is as good as another, take your pick... It comes from the nine cubic yards capacity of US concrete trucks and dates from around 1970s. The explanation refers to World War II aircraft, which if proved correct would clearly pre-date the concrete truck version. There are several aircraft related sources, 1. the length of US bombers bomb racks, 2. the length of RAF Spitfire's machine gun bullet belts, 3. the length of ammunition belts in ground based anti-aircraft turrets, etc. No evidence to show that any of these measured nine yards has been forthcoming. Tailors use nine yards of material for top quality suits. Related to 'dressed to the nines'? The derivation has even been suggested as being naval and that the yards are shipyards rather than measures of area or volume. Another naval version is that the yards are yardarms. Large sailing ships had three masts, each with three yardarms. The theory goes that ships in battle can continue changing direction as new sails are unfurled. Only when the last sail, on the ninth yardarm, is used do the enemy know which direction the ship is finally headed.
My votes are as follows. Knock on wood Money doesn't grow on trees Hindsight is always twenty-twenty Better late than never All's fair in love and war Finders keepers, losers weepers Great minds think alike The Best laid schemes of mice and men One for the road The penis mightier for $400 Alex
Damn you. You stole my thunder. I saw the title of this thread and the first thing that came to my mind was, Mr. Cliche himself, Craig Biggio.
I'd like to know about the piss and vinegar thing and the whole nine yards. unlisted(I'm pretty sure): The whole kitten caboodle(sp?) and my favorite chinese proverb: do not remove a fly from your friend's forehead with a hatchet
Something that all English/Anglo sportspeople say with monotonous regularity: 'At the end of the day...'
The whole 9 yards origin is above. Full of Piss and Vinegar: Meaning :Rowdy and boisterous. Origin: Sailors who had had plenty to drink were in this condition. The vinegar may refer to the acidic form that cheap alcohol adopts when drunk, or it may be the vinegar that sailors drank to ward off scurvy
"Kit and caboodle" (which is the most common form) dates back to the mid-eighteenth century and appeared first in England. There are a number of variants, including "kit and kerboodle" and "kit and boodle." The "kit" part of the phrase is of fairly straightforward origin, "kit" being an 18th century English slang term for "outfit" or "collection," as in a soldier's "kit bag," which contained all his worldly possessions. "Kit" may have come from "kith," meaning "estate," found today in the phrase "kith and kin." "Caboodle" is a tougher nut to crack. As usual, there are a number of theories, the most likely of which traces "boodle" back to the Dutch word "boedel," meaning "property." Lawyers take note: "boodle" actually was a respectable word in its own right (meaning "estate") in the 17th and 18th centuries, and was even used in legal documents. But why "caboodle" or "kerboodle"? The "ca" and "ker" may be related to the intensive German prefix "ge," giving the sense "the whole boodle." Put it all together and you get "kit and caboodle," meaning "everything and all of everything," down to the last kitten.
At the end of the day: First became popular in the U.K. and drift westward. At the end of the day, "at the end of the day" is only an announcement of summarising and when all's said and done - it suggests that there will be an encompassing movement from the particular to the general, which at the end of the day is sometimes required, when all's said and done.
Once in a Blue Moon: Meaning A very rare event. Origin A blue moon was originally cited as something impossible and later came to mean unlikely. There are rare examples of the moon actually appearing blue, after volcanic eruptions or unusual weather conditions. Another possible derivation is from The Maine Farmers' Almanac. When there were two full moons in a calendar month the first was printed in red, the second in blue.