a few sandwiches short of a picnic »
Exhibiting disquiet or unsoundness of mind; not sane; mad.
|
a leopard cannot change its spots »
One cannot change one's own nature.1597, William Shakespeare, Richard II Act i, Scene 1 (First Folio):King. Lyons make Leopards tame.Mowbray. Yea but not change his ?pots.1611, King James Version of the Bible, Jeremiah 13:23:Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe Chapter 32:End now all unkindness. Let us put the Jew to ransom, since the leopard will not change his spots, and a Jew he will continue to be.1918, Johnston McCulley, Thubway Tham's Inthane Moment:The leopard cannot change his spots, old boy.
|
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!
|
against the grain »
To sand or plane a piece of wood parallel or nearly parallel to the fibers such that splinters forming ahead of the tool originate below the cutting surface.
|
around the bend »
Crazy, insane.
|
at a moment's notice »
Immediately; instantaneously; without need of warning.
|
at once »
At the same time; simultaneously; together.
|
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.
|
break off »
To end abruptly, either temporarily or permanently.
|
bring owls to Athens »
Who brings owls to Athens? — Euelpides, in Aristophanes' Birds.
|
carrot and stick »
Simultaneous rewards for good behavior and punishments for bad behavior.
|
carry on »
To take baggage or luggage onto an airplane, rather than check it.
|
come about »
To tack; to change tack; to maneuver the bow of a sailing vessel across the wind so that the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other; to position a boat with respect to the wind after tacking.
|
comfort woman »
A woman forced, or supposedly recruited, into brothels by the Japanese occupation forces during World War II.
|
crack up »
To become insane; to suffer a mental breakdown.
|
| Like Phrases.net? Why won't you tell a friend about us? |
