Said in reply to someone who has reported doing something that is considered to be obviously foolish.
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"The American Flint", vol. 23, p. 55 (1937) contains the passage: "Bill Earlhar made a call at the plant the other day. I presume he wanted to look us over, to see if any one of…
I've found a slightly earlier cite than the commonly-given one, but it still puts it as an American phrase: "Ps and Qs" by C. & E.B. Gil, published by Bowles & Dearborn in 1828,…
Dear Editor, FYI, I grew up in the 1950s and 60s in northern Indiana and always knew the phrase to be "split image" or "splitting image," usually the former. It was later in my…
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12 August 2026
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Late summer is when British newspapers traditionally run thin on real news and thick on odd ones, a stretch known as the silly season. The phrases we reach for to describe that filler, and the stories it produces, have their own overlooked histories.
7 August 2026
Based on Google Books usage over the last ~25 years. Refreshes each build.
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- Meaning Cry wolf To raise a false alarm, especially repeatedly, so that people stop believing a warning even when it turns out to be true.
- Meaning New York minute A very short space of time, used to describe something happening with startling speed.
- Meaning Uncle Tom A black person regarded as servile or excessively deferential towards white people, especially one seen as betraying their own community for favour with those in power.
- Meaning Wardrobe malfunction An accidental and embarrassing exposure of part of the body caused by a slip or failure of clothing.
- Meaning Brown bread Cockney rhyming slang for 'dead', used to say that someone has died.
- Meaning Code monkey A pejorative term for a computer programmer, especially one who is assigned simple, repetitive coding work rather than more creative or senior tasks.
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Phrases.org.uk has been documenting the meaning and origin of phrases, sayings and idioms since 1997. Every entry is researched and written by Gary Martin, with citations to the earliest printed use we can find.
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