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.
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beat one's head against a stone wall »
To waste effort on a futile project.
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bouncing off the walls »
Moving hyperactively.
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brick wall »
An obstacle.
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climb the walls »
To behave in a distressed or frantic manner; to feel very agitated.
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climbing the walls »
Present participle of climb the walls.
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cry for help »
In her second year at the school Alexis stopped doing her homework and would often scribble on walls. Her teachers wondered whether this was a cry for help, or if she was simply misbehaving.
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drive one up the wall »
To make a person very angry or bored; to infuriate.
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fly on the wall »
A quiet, non-participating, or unseen observer; an eavesdropper or witness.
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fourth wall »
The boundary between the fiction and the audience.
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fourth wall »
The imaginary invisible wall at the front of the stage in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play.
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go down the wrong way »
To swallow food or drink so that it goes down the wrong tube in one's throat and makes one cough or for a short period lose one's breath or choke.
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go to the wall »
To make an all-out effort.
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handwriting on the wall »
Alternative form of writing on the wall. A divine prediction or sentence to fate.
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have one's back to the wall »
To have no other options remaining.
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