a closed mouth gathers no feet »
One who does not speak can be certain he won't say anything embarrassing.
|
a dime's worth »
An insignificant amount.
|
a picture paints a thousand words »
A visualisation is a better description than a verbal description.1971, David Gates (of Bread), If, from Manna album:If a picture paints a thousand wordsThen why can't I paint you;The words will never showThe you I've come to know.1989, Alan Kay, quoted in K?o-tung Huang, Timothy D. Huang, Introduction to Chinese, Japanese and Korean Computing, World Scientific, ISBN 9971506645, p. 9:Most human beings, no matter how familiar they are with abstract symbols, respond to voice and images better than written language. In other words, A picture paints a thousand words.2006, Paul Shakespeare, Building a Dune Buggy: The Essential Manual, ISBN 1904788734, p. 52:See accompanying diagram: a picture paints a thousand words, and all that!
|
a rolling stone gathers no moss »
A person who never settles in one place will never be successful.A person who does not keep active will grow mouldy.
|
a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down »
An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.1999, Eli Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253335833, page 372,One is known as the "sweetening parable," that is to say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Thus, when the aim is to preach to the people, to guide them along the "bitter," arduous path of upholding burdensome precepts and prohibitions, a tale can lighten the load, make the "medicine" easier "to swallow."2001, Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter: A Memoir, Little, Brown, ISBN 0316736368, page 319,It put some fun into the tedious business of preparing for a presidential debate. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right?2004, John Hoover, How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive... Without Killing Your Boss, Career Press, ISBN 1564147045, page 11,If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, a barrel of laughs can wash down the big pills you might need to swallow.
|
add up »
To accumulate; to amount to.
|
against all odds »
Despite seemingly insurmountable opposition or probability.
|
all mouth and no trousers »
Superficial, engaging in empty, boastful talk, but not of real substance.
|
all mouth and trousers »
Superficial, engaging in empty, boastful talk, but not of real substance.
|
avant la lettre »
An example of a term before the term was coined. Describing a term used anachronistically.
|
bad news »
An irritating, troublesome, or harmful person, situation, or thing.
|
bad taste in one's mouth »
A feeling of disappointment and frustration.
|
bad taste in one's mouth »
A feeling of guilt, responsibility, or embarrassment as to cause nausea.
|
bad taste in one's mouth »
A feeling something is morally despicable as to cause nausea.
|
bank night »
An event where patrons are enticed to buy entry tickets into some venue, for example a movie theater, with the anticipation that they will be entered into a drawing to win an amount of money if their ticket is drawn and they are on-site at the time of the winning.
|
beam up »
To be teleported over a long distance by means of a specific imaginary technology, specifically from the surface of a planet to an orbiting starship.
|
beam up »
To teleport another person or object in the same manner.
|
because you touch yourself at night »
Used to humourously deflect a request for a reason.
|
big mouth »
The mouth of someone who talks too much, especially by making exaggerated claims or by inappropriately revealing information.
|
bit by a barn mouse »
Tipsy.
|
bite one's tongue »
To forcibly prevent oneself from uttering a word.
|
blow the whistle »
To disclose information to the public or to appropriate authorities concerning the illegal or socially harmful actions of a person or group, especially a corporation or government agency.
|
boot up »
To start a computer using its bootstrap procedure.
|
borganism »
An organization of autonomous organisms that exhibit collectivism: individual "units" that have merged to yield a unified construct. Such an amalgam may possess a collective consciousness, arguably an emergent phenomenon of social networking.
|
born with a silver spoon in one's mouth »
Born rich or in a wealthy family.
|
born with a silver spoon in one's mouth »
Note. The original nautical expression is just born with a silver spoon and describes those young gentlemen who were able to enter the Royal Navy without examination and whose promotion was assured. the converse was born with a wooden ladle.
|
bottom line »
The final balance; the amount of money or profit left after everything has been tallied.
|
brain fart »
Something ill-considered and said or done impulsively.
|
bridge »
A device which connects two or more computer buses, typically in a transparent manner.
|
build a better mousetrap »
To invent the next great thing; to have a better idea.
|
bush telegraph »
A system used by undeveloped societies in remote regions for communication over long distances, such as drum sounds, word-of-mouth relay, or smoke signals.
|
call in »
To communicate with a base etc, by telephone.
|
cash cow »
Someone or something which is a dependable source of appreciable amounts of money; a moneymaker.
|
cat and mouse game »
Two individuals and/or groups repeatedly keeping check on each other in a suspicious or self-protective way, often with the goal of one or both parties trying to gain a malicious advantage over the other.
|
catch flies »
An ostensible product of awkwardly having one's mouth open wide.
|
check out »
To obtain computer source code from a repository.
|
chip in »
To put into the pot the amount of chips or money required to continue.
|
chump change »
An amount of remuneration, reward, or other monetary recompense considered to be insultingly small.
|
claim to fame »
That for which one has bragging rights; one's reason for being well-known or famous.
|
clam up »
To become silent; to stop talking, to shut up.
|
clean up »
To make a large profit; to win by a large margin, or to win a large amount, especially in gambling. Also clean house.
|
clock up »
To accumulate a large amount of time.
|
come to »
To total; to amount to.
|
consume mass quantities »
To eat or drink abundant amounts of food or beverage.
|
consume mass quantities »
To use large amounts of any resource.
|
cut down »
To reduce the amount of something.
|
damn with faint praise »
To provide praise that is so minimal or inconsequential as to actually amount to criticism.
|
dead men tell no tales »
Once someone is dead, they can no longer communicate, hence killing someone is the best way to keep him/her quiet.
|
divide and conquer »
A combination of political, military and economic strategies that aim to gain and maintain power by breaking up larger concentrations of power into chunks that individually have less power than the one implementing the strategy.(computing) Applied to various algorithms, such as quicksort, that solve a problem by splitting it recursively into smaller problems until all of the remaining problems are trivial.(as imperative, proverb) In order to rule securely, don't allow alliances of your enemies.
|
don't be penny wise and pound foolish »
Don't be careful when it comes to spending small amounts of money, but careless when spending much larger amounts.Don't focus on minutiae and lose sight of the big picture; don't obsess over tiny inconsequential efficiencies while glaring inefficiencies are going on elsewhere.
|
don't look a gift horse in the mouth »
Do not unappreciatively question a gift or handout too closely.
|
double up »
To double the quantity, amount or duration of something.
|
down in the mouth »
Sad or discouraged, especially as indicated by one's facial appearance.
|
drag »
To move a mouse cursor while holding down a button on the mouse, often to move something on the screen.
|
dribs and drabs »
A series of negligible amounts.
|
drink from a firehose »
To take a small amount from an enormous, hard-to-manage quantity.
|
drip »
To put a small amount of a liquid on something, drop by drop.
|
drum up »
To generate or encourage; to campaign for.
|
eat one's own dog food »
To test the beta programs that are in the test phase on one's own computers; to dogfood.
|
enough is as good as a feast »
Just the right amount is as good as more than enough: there is no value in excess.
|
even Homer nods »
Not even the most vigilant and expert are immune from erring.
|
face value »
The amount or value listed on a bill, note, stamp, etc.; the stated value or amount.
|
faith will move mountains »
Belief in oneself (read sometimes as belief in God) can help one overcome any hurdle in life's path.
|
fall over »
Of a computer program, to crash.
|
feather one's nest »
To achieve benefits, especially financial ones, by taking advantage of the opportunities with which one is presented; to amass a comfortable amount of personal wealth.
|
fencepost problem »
In computer programming, a problem dealing with how to treat the initial or boundary values of a discrete problem.
|
fire-breathing »
That emits flame from the mouth or nostrils.
|
firm up »
To make muscles more toned through physical exercise.
|
firm up »
To make tentative plans more definite.
|
first among equals »
In the British and other parliamentary systems, a term used to describe the relationship of the prime minister to the other members of the cabinet.
|
food chain »
The feeding relationships between species in a biotic community.
|
forewarned is forearmed »
Advance awareness of a situation, especially a risky one, prepares one to deal with it.1863, Charles Reade, Hard Cash, ch. 4:[W]hatever a young gentleman of that age says to you, he says to many other ladies; but your experience is not equal to your sense; so profit by mine . . . forewarned is forearmed.1885, G. A. Henty, Saint George for England, ch. 4:Sometimes, they say, it is wiser to remain in ignorance; at other times forewarned is forearmed.circa 1903, Lucy Maud Montgomery, "Why Mr. Cropper Changed His Mind":"Well, Miss Maxwell, I think it only fair to tell you that you may have trouble with those boys when they do come. Forewarned is forearmed, you know."
|
four-on-the-floor »
Relating to a vehicle with a four-speed manual transmission mounted beside the driver on the floor of the vehicle.
|
full whack »
The whole amount.
|
garbage in, garbage out »
(computing, information technology) If input data is not complete, accurate, and timely, then the resulting output is unreliable and of no useful value.1963, Raymond Crowley, "Robot Tax Collector Seeks Indications of 'Fudging'," Times Daily (Alabama, USA), 1 April (retrieved 26 July 2010):Officials explained that the quality of the computer's work depends on the quality of the data fed into it. Neil Hoke, administrative assistant to Stewart, quoted an adage of computer men: "Garbage in, garbage out."2008, Roger K. Lewis, "'In Architectural Design, Brains and Talent Trump the Best Software," Washington Post, 19 July (retrieved 26 July 2010):The old caveat "GIGO"
|
get over »
surmount
|
get over »
cross, surmount
|
get stuck in »
To dedicate a large amount of effort towards.
|
gets down »
dismounts
|
give me liberty or give me death »
A set-phrase indicating enormous displeasure at any over-authoritarian policy or law.
|
give or take »
Approximately; plus or minus some unknown amount.
|
glutton for punishment »
One persistent in an effort in spite of harmful or unpleasant results.
|
go by the board »
To be superseded, rejected, or obliterated; to pass by with little consequence; to amount to nothing.
|
go to work »
To go to one's job, as by commuting.
|
grease payment »
A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.
|
hold one's liquor »
To be resistant to intoxication or to show few signs of intoxication, even after consuming a significant amount of alcohol.
|
hold one's water »
To be patient; to control one's impulses.
|
hoover up »
Quickly, especially by taking it into the mouth directly from the plate rather than using cutlery.
|
horse's mouth »
Source; someone who directly experienced or witnessed something.
|
hot lunch »
A sexual act in which a pouch of clingfilm or similar material filled with faeces is placed in one of the participants' mouth and subsequently penetrated by the second participant.
|
hustle and bustle »
A large amount of activity and work, usually in a noisy surrounding.
|
if the mountain won't come to Muhammad »
"If one cannot get one's own way, one must bow to the inevitable.".
|
in shape »
I hope to get in shape for summer swimsuit season.
|
in touch »
In contact, or in communication.
|
jungle telegraph »
A gossip network; an informal communication system within a group or organization.
|
jungle telegraph »
A system used by primitive cultures in remote tropical regions for communication over long distances, such as drum sounds or a relay of runners.
|
keep one's mouth shut »
To keep a secret; to refrain from speaking indiscreetly or carelessly.
|
kiss of life »
Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
|
kitchen table software »
Especially in the early years of personal computers, a set of computer programs developed by an entrepreneurial advanced amateur or self-employed professional computer programmer in his or her own home; software developed by a small business using the services of such programmers.
|
knock up »
To gently hit the ball back and forth before a tennis match, as practice or warm-up, and to gauge the state of the playing surface, lighting, etc. See knock-up.
|
knuckle sandwich »
A punch to the face, especially to the mouth.
|
labor of love »
A task performed voluntarily without expectation of reimbursement; an altruistic work or undertaking.
|
lead time »
The amount of time between the initiation of some process and its completion, e.g. the time required to manufacture or procure a product; the time required before something can be provided or delivered.
|
less is more »
That which is less complicated is often better understood and more appreciated than what is more complicated; simplicity is preferable to complexity; brevity in communication is more effective than verbosity.1855, Robert Browning, "Men and Women":Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.1954, "'Less Is More'," Time, 14 Jun.:The essence of Mies's architectural philosophy is in his famous and sometimes derided phrase, "Less is more." This means, he says, having "the greatest effect with the least means."2007, Gia Kourlas, "Dance Review: An Ordered World Defined With Soothing Spareness," New York Times, 3 Mar. (retrieved 22 Oct. 2008):The program, which features two premieres
|
lick one's chops »
To use one's tongue to remove moistness from the sides of one's mouth, as when salivating or at the conclusion of a meal.
|
lie in wait »
prepare an ambush
|
lion »
A famous person.
|
lion »
A large cat, Panthera leo, native to Africa, India and formerly to much of Europe. The term may apply to the species as a whole, to individuals, or to male individuals. It also applies to related species like mountain lions.
|
log out »
To exit an account in a computer system so that it doesn't recognize you until you log in again.
|
long goodbye »
Nickname for Alzheimer's disease, especially for the final phase of the disease, during which the patient suffers a progressive decline of cognitive and motor skills and gradually loses the ability to recognize and to communicate with family and friends.[1]; nickname for the relationship between a person suffering from Alzheimer's disease and that person's family or friends.
|
lose touch »
To cease to be familiar with someone or something or to cease to communicate or have contact.
|
lubrication payment »
A bribe or extorted money, usually relatively small in amount, provided to a low-level government official or business person, in order to expedite a business decision, shipment, or other transaction, especially in a country where such payments are not unusual.
|
mad money »
A sum of money, often relatively small in amount, kept in reserve to use for impulsive, frivolous purposes.
|
make a killing »
To win or earn a large amount of money.
|
make a mountain out of a molehill »
To treat a problem as greater than it is; to blow something out of proportion; to exaggerate the importance of something trivial.
|
make it »
To become famous and successful.
|
make it big »
To become famous and successful.
|
many a mickle makes a muckle »
(UK) a lot of small amounts together, become a large amount.
|
mark up »
To add coding to text so that it will display properly on a computer.
|
mixed message »
Any communication that is contradictory, inconsistent, or unclear, especially in its motive or intent.
|
motor mouth »
One who talks incessantly; a chatty or loquacious person.
|
mouse potato »
A person who spends excessive amounts of time using a computer.
|
mouth breather »
A person who is boorish, stupid, or otherwise unattractive.
|
mouth breather »
A person who routinely inhales and exhales through the mouth, instead of through the nose.
|
mouth of a sailor »
The characteristic of regularly using vulgar language, especially strong profanities; a person having this characteristic.
|
mouth organ »
harmonica
|
mouthful of marbles »
An indistinct, muffled or garbled manner of speaking.
|
movie star »
famous film actor
|
muck about »
To do random unplanned work or spend time idly.
|
never look a gift horse in the mouth »
Alternative form of don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
|
nickel and dime »
Small time; operating on a small scale; involving small amounts of money; petty or cheap.
|
nine lives »
Durability; near immunity to damage.
|
noarch »
Short for "no architecture". It is a term used mainly in package management systems to mark packages which are architecture independent. Such packages usually contain graphics, documentation or similar data that can be used on any architecture.
|
not a zack »
No amount of money; no money at all.
|
nothing flat »
Amount of time; no time at all.
|
nugget of truth »
A small amount of truth in a generally untrue statement.
|
oil burner »
A device whose operation causes apparent combustion of lubricating oil.
|
old money »
The monetary system used in the United Kingdom before decimalisation and consisting of pounds, shillings, and pence.
|
open one's big mouth »
To speak about things, when it would be better to stay silent.
|
out of the mouths of babes »
The greatest wisdom comes from children, who are not afraid or weary of the world and its pressures.
|
out of touch »
No longer maintaining contact or communications.
|
outsider »
A newcomer with little or no experience in an organization or community.
|
outsider »
One who is not part of a community or organization.
|
pass on »
To convey or communicate.
|
patience of Job »
An great amount of patience.
|
pay through the nose »
To pay a high price, especially an exorbitant or excessive amount, either in money or in some other manner.
|
pay up »
To pay for something in total, after a certain amount of time after receiving a purchase.
|
penny wise and pound foolish »
Prudent and thrifty with small amounts of money, but wasteful and profligate with large amounts.
|
perp walk »
The intentional public display before news cameras of someone in police custody, especially someone famous or notorious, for the purpose of satisfying public interest, demonstrating the authorities' effectiveness, or shaming the person.
|
personal computers »
PCs
|
poison »
A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism.
|
potty mouth »
The characteristic of regularly using vulgar language, especially strong profanities; a person having this characteristic.
|
pretty penny »
A considerable amount of money; a high price or a high income.
|
proverbs run in pairs »
Every proverb seems to be contradicted by another proverb with an opposed message, such as "too many cooks spoil the broth" and "many hands make light work."1863, Sir Richard Burton, Abeokuta and the Camaroons Mountains, vol. 1, Tinsley (London), p. 309:Moreover, all the world over, proverbs run in pairs, and pull both ways: for the most part one neutralizes, by contradiction, the other.
|
put a sock in it »
To be quiet; to shut one's mouth; to stop talking.
|
put down »
To pay an initial amount of money on a large purchase.
|
put one's foot in one's mouth »
To misspeak; to say something embarrassing or wrong.
|
put one's money where one's mouth is »
More generally, to take an obvious stake in the truth of a claim that one is making.
|
put one's money where one's mouth is »
To make or take a bet.
|
put up »
To hang or mount.
|
put words in somebody's mouth »
To attribute to somebody something he or she did not say; to claim inaccurately that somebody said or intended something.
|
quicumque vult »
A forward girl, ready to oblige every man that shall ask her.
|
quicumque vult »
The Athanasian Creed.
|
quite a bit »
A considerable amount.
|
read somebody's lips »
To discern what somebody is saying by watching the shape of the mouth rather than by hearing the sounds of the words.
|
run to »
To reach a particular maximum amount, size, value, etc.
|
rush hour »
The times of the day when traffic jams are commonplace, due mainly to people commuting to or from work.
|
same difference »
It makes no difference; it amounts to the same thing.
|
scrape together »
To collect, assemble or gather small amounts , from various sources, with some difficulty.
|
send up »
To imitate someone or something for the purpose of satirical humour.
|
shoot 'em up »
A short story, novel, television show, film, computer game, or other narrative which depicts considerable gunplay.
|
shoot off at the mouth »
Don't let [presidential press secretary Ron] Ziegler shoot off at the mouth without our knowledge.
|
shoot off at the mouth »
To boast, or brag, or talk too much.
|
shoot off at the mouth »
To disclose some information that was supposed to be secret.
|
shoot one's mouth off »
To make reckless or exaggerated statements.
|
shut one's mouth »
To stop talking; to be quiet.
|
sign in »
To take some action to access a secured program or web page on a computer; to log in.
|
sign off »
Term used to describe the closing of a radio or television station's studios and cessation of a broadcasting signal, usually during the overnight hours.
|
slob »
A term used to insult a lazy, obese person.
|
small change »
A minor or insignificant amount of money.
|
smoke signal »
A method of long-distance communication sometimes used in ancient and undeveloped societies, consisting of messages conveyed by means of columns or intermittent puffs of smoke.
|
smoke signal »
A type of flare or combustion device sometimes used as a distress signal.
|
snow on the mountaintop »
Gray or white hair on one's head, especially as an indication of aging.
|
socialized medicine »
A politically charged term used to contrast such systems with free market alternatives and emphasize the perceived link to socialism.
|
spoil the ship for a hap'orth of tar »
To have something important fail for want of a small amount of money or effort.
|
stand from under »
To escape something falling or being thrown from above.
|
stop the lights »
An interjection expressing exasperation or incredulity. or to illustrate the humour in a situation.
|
stop the presses »
An imperative form used to introduce especially new, important, surprising, or recent developments.
|
straight from the horse's mouth »
Directly from the source; firsthand.
|
sum up »
To summarize.
|
sword and sorcery »
Of or pertaining to a genre of narratives—including short stories, novels, television shows, films, and computer games—which combines wizardry and other fantastical supernatural elements with violent combat using medieval weaponry..
|
take a bath »
To lose a large amount of money in an investment.
|
take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves »
If you take care of little things one at a time, they can add up to big things.1750, Chesterfield, letter 5 Feb. (1932) IV. 1500:Old Mr. Lowndes, the famous Secretary of the Treasury, ?used to say?Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.1912, G. B. Shaw, Pygmalion ii. 132:Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves is as true of personal habits as of money.1979, R. Cassilis, Arrow of God, iv. xvii.:Little things, Master Mally. Look after the pennies, Master Mally, and the pounds will look after themselves.1999,
|
team up »
To join into a team, or into teams.
|
team up with »
To associate with another in a joint enterprise.
|
tempus fugit »
time flies (used as an alternative to this phrase)."Meanwhile, the irreplaceable time escapes", expressing concern that one's limited time is being consumed by something which may have little intrinsic substance or importance at that moment.
|
three-on-the-tree »
On an automobile, describing the gearshift lever of a steering column-mounted three-speed manual transmission.
|
top dollar »
The maximum amount of money that an item, service, or worker is worth; a very high price.
|
touch base »
To consult, visit, or communicate with.
|
trench mouth »
Acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis, a severe bacterial infection of the gums, typically characterized by inflammation, bleeding, deep ulceration, necrotized tissue, pain, fever, enlarged lymph nodes, fatigue, and halitosis.
|
tuits »
Virtual tokens for an amount of time or attention that a particular issue would need to resolve.
|
tune up »
To make preparations for vigorous exercise; to warm up.
|
turn down »
To reduce the amount of something by means of a control, such as the volume, heat, or light.
|
turn heads »
To garner a considerable amount of attention.
|
turn up »
To increase the amount of something by means of a control, such as the volume, heat, or light.
|
two bob »
A small amount of value.
|
two cents »
A nearly worthless amount, alluding to placing a copper penny on each of the eyelids of a pauper's or slave's body before burial.
|
underwater basket weaving »
"Sure, somewhere out there, college slackers were taking broom ball and underwater basket weaving." — The Columbus Dispatch, September 15, 2005.
|
warm up »
To make an audience enthusiastic or animated before a show.
|
warm up »
To reheat food.
|
warm up »
To become warmer.
|
warm up »
To prepare for executing an already-learned activity by a limited amount of additional practice.
|
watch one's mouth »
In the imperative form, used as a warning to avoid or stop using inappropriate language, especially profanity, or disrespectful utterances.
|
watch one's mouth »
To be careful about what one says, especially with regard to disrespectful or profane language.
|
whistle-stop train tour »
A tour in a political campaign that makes many brief stops in small communities.
|
wolf in sheep's clothing »
Something harmful or problematic disguised as something peaceful or pleasant.
|
word of mouth »
Verbal means of passing of information.
|
word on the street »
The rumour or news going around on the street.
|
word on the wire »
The rumour or news going around on the Internet, in business, on the street, or in social circles.
|
world »
A great amount.
|
zip up »
To convert a computer file into a smaller package.
|
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