Best Opaque Idioms

Wouldn’t touch it with a Barge pole! 

We voted to leave Europe. 

Sticky wicket 

Up the creek without a paddle 

You cannot see the wood for the trees

Well, given the way Brexit is shaping up (no big change after a great deal of fuss), I'd be inclined to suggest "after the Lord Mayor's show". 

Pole dancing

Clear as mud!

Speak now, or forever hold your piece.    (Homophone intended)

But I have to say this thread is the first time I've come across English speakers. Has anyone else come across them? Do you have any specs, photos or reviews of the Secondary? How does the Primary compare?

Innocent Bystander posted:

Speak now, or forever hold your piece.    (Homophone intended)

But I have to say this thread is the first time I've come across English speakers. Has anyone else come across them? Do you have any specs, photos or reviews of the Secondary? How does the Primary compare?

I could Naim a few English Speakers, but we now appear to be Focaled (or is it Focused) on French ones.

Gordon Bennet !

.... Bob's your uncle......

Raining muck forks steel times downards

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

Don Atkinson posted:

Innocent Bystander posted:

Speak now, or forever hold your piece.    (Homophone intended)

But I have to say this thread is the first time I've come across English speakers. Has anyone else come across them? Do you have any specs, photos or reviews of the Secondary? How does the Primary compare?

I could Naim a few English Speakers, but we now appear to be Focaled (or is it Focused) on French ones.

I was searching for a brand called English. (Might of course be a Chinese brand name.)

With bated breath

Or, rather nice though erroneous having been coined by someone who thought the word was baited: with trap on tongue.

GraemeH posted:

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

The word comes from the cloth industry of old. The Tenterhooks were hooks on a frame used to stretch the cloth as it dried out. These frames filled the fields of the Stroud Valleys in bygone times. There are paintings showing the Stroud Scarlet used by the British Army.

The above explains the origin and meaning of the phase. Heaven knows where tenter comes from.

Phil

GraemeH posted:

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

Well spotted Graham.

I’m not surprised you know what a tenter is, after all in Scotland it’s still regarded as “state of the art” textile finishing equipment.

Following on from Derek’s post, it was another example of an incorrect idiom.

Filipe posted:

GraemeH posted:

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

The word comes from the cloth industry of old. The Tenterhooks were hooks on a frame used to stretch the cloth as it dried out. These frames filled the fields of the Stroud Valleys in bygone times. There are paintings showing the Stroud Scarlet used by the British Army.

The above explains the origin and meaning of the phase. Heaven knows where tenter comes from.

Phil

The frame is the tenter.

"It's a bit of a curate's egg"

"bog-standard"

I was at an international conference once where one of the speakers used both idioms in a 5 minute discourse, much to the confusion of the assembled Chinese and Japanese contingent.

"aye, right" - an example where a double positive provides a negative!

fatcat posted:

Filipe posted:

GraemeH posted:

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

The word comes from the cloth industry of old. The Tenterhooks were hooks on a frame used to stretch the cloth as it dried out. These frames filled the fields of the Stroud Valleys in bygone times. There are paintings showing the Stroud Scarlet used by the British Army.

The above explains the origin and meaning of the phase. Heaven knows where tenter comes from.

Phil

The frame is the tenter.

Perhaps tenter is an archaic word for tension.

Don't work too hard

Sauce first.

Filipe posted:

fatcat posted:

Filipe posted:

GraemeH posted:

fatcat posted:

That reminds me of the oftem used phrase.

 I’ve been on tender hooks.

 

‘Tenterhooks’

G

The word comes from the cloth industry of old. The Tenterhooks were hooks on a frame used to stretch the cloth as it dried out. These frames filled the fields of the Stroud Valleys in bygone times. There are paintings showing the Stroud Scarlet used by the British Army.

The above explains the origin and meaning of the phase. Heaven knows where tenter comes from.

Phil

The frame is the tenter.

Perhaps tenter is an archaic word for tension.

From WorldWideWords

Tenter comes from the Latin tendere, to stretch, via a French intermediate. The word has been in the language since the fourteenth century, and on tenters soon after became a phrase meaning painful anxiety. The exact phrase on tenterhooks seems first to have been used by Tobias Smollett in Roderick Random in 1748.

What did we do before the internet and search engines?

At this time of year, I did once phone the OED enquiry line to solve an argument over 'pitching', 'laying', and 'settling' and whether the word shrammed actually exists.