The Phrase A Week Christmas Quiz
The Phrase A Week Christmas Quiz
Phrases and Sayings Home


A Merry Christmas to all A Phrase A Week readers. To make it just a bit more merry, (and to check that you really have being paying attention) have a go at my 2011 Christmas Quiz:


If you want to check your answers, you can look phrases up at www.phrases.org.uk/meanings



1. 'Umbrage' was

A type of medicine
A BBC radio serial
A shady area
2. 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year' was

A traditional greeting by members of the German Royal Court
Coined by US advertisers in the 1920s
The text on the first Christmas card
3. 'Say cheese' was devised by

The American politician Joseph Davies
From 'shiraz', the German word for 'smile'
Mickey Mouse
4. If you were 'saved by the bell', where you be?

In a pub
In a boxing ring
In a coffin
5. 'Oranges' got their name from

The colour oranage
Spray tanning
The Middle Eastern name 'norange'
6. The 'sorts' in 'out of sorts' were

Printer's type blocks
Cockney stallholders
Liquorice sweets
7. The expression 'Bunny boiler' derives from

Bugs Bunny
The film Fatal Attraction
The British politician Sir Clarence Boiler
8. An 'inkling' was

A sausage
A faint hearing of one's own name
A fairy's ghost
9. 'Dressed to the nines' derives from

Suits made from nine yards of cloth
The name of the famous Dutch giraffe - Nyne.
Dressing well, in one's best clothes
10. The first person described as a 'living legend' was

Florence Nightingale
Lady Gaga
Marilyn Monroe
11. If you are 'in the offing' you are

About to be married
Just entering/leaving a port
In a Limehouse pub
12. 'Lock, stock and barrel' derives from

A Hanna-Barbera cartoon
The parts of a flintlock musket
A 1990s gangster film
13. A 'dead ringer' was originally a horse substituted in order to gain advantage in a race

True
False
14. 'Beyond the pale' derives from

The banning of white trousers in Soviet Russia
The belief that white skin is unhealthy
The outer limits of a settlement
15. The 'booby prize' went to

Whoever could catch a gannet for tea
The person showing least intelligence
The lady with the biggest bra
16. The first 'Jumbo' was

A Disney cartoon character
An elephant in Barnum's circus
A ceremonial Hindu prayer wagon
17. 'Weasel words' originated from

The Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling
The supposed habit of weasels of sucking eggs
A corruption of 'We will have words' before a fight
18. 'Boxing Day' got its name from

The giving of gifts in boxes at Christmas
The mating habits of hares
Staged fights held on the day after Christmas
19. 'Flotsam and jetsam' were

The spots seen after looking at a bright light
A 19th century music hall act
The debris remaining after a shipwreck
20. 'The hair of the dog' refers to

The belief that drinking alcohol will cure a hangover
The tradition of eating rabbit on Boxing Day
A corruption of 'the heir of the Doge'
21. If you were 'Spruced up' you were originally

Committed to a lunatic asylum
Climbing a tree
Wearing your best leather jacket
22. The expression 'Double Dutch' derives from

An advocat cocktail
A skipping game
The British difficulty in understanding Dutch
23. 'Take the gilt off the gingerbread' came from

The Puritan belief that those eating biscuits were guilty of sin
A reference to the gilding of wooden sailing boats
Gilded cakes
24. 'Humble pie' was

A pie made from bees
A variant of 'umble pie', i.e. a pie made from innards
Named after a 1960s pop group
25. The phrase 'Salad Days' was coined by

Mrs Beeton
John Lennon
William Shakespeare