In No Uncertain Terms, My Dad Told the Man How The Cow Ate The Cabbage

Five more English idioms that make learning English difficult

Merriam-Webster online dictionary says that an idiom is “an expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words, but that has a separate meaning of its own.” Most languages, if not all, contain idioms. They make learning the language complex, but the learning process can be fun for someone with a sense of adventure.

In no uncertain terms, my dad told the man how the cow ate the cabbage.

My dad spoke plainly. He said what he meant and meant what he said. There was never any doubt about what my dad was thinking. I remember one time, he had hired a contractor to complete a project at the house. My father felt the contractor had not completed the project in a workman-like manner. He made it quite plain the craftsman would not be paid until the job was done right.

The real estate salesperson wanted to make a sale with her buyers today, so she stacked the deck.

Historically, real estate salespersons are paid by commission and only when the sale or purchase of real estate occurs. There is tremendous motivation to get a buyer to select a property quickly and submit an acceptable offer. A typical sales technique is to show the buyer a few properties that meet the buyer’s criteria such that one is a better option than the others. This is stacking the deck.

After leading a school of 4800 students, the semi-retired principal thought running the new school was a piece of cake.

I knew a school principal that headed a massive high school for many years. After retiring, he grew bored and longed for some stimulation. He became a principal of a much smaller high school. A friend told me he walked the new school halls muttering “piece of cake” under his breath because it was so easy compared to his previous job. A similar idiom is “walk in the park.”

Hey, George! How are you? Harold, I’m feeling fair to Midland.

Growing up in Texas, I’ve heard this expression a lot. Grammarist.com says the phrase is a mondegreen, an expression misheard and repeated incorrectly. The actual term is fair to middling. Fair and middling are grades of cotton denoting average or a little above average. When I was a kid, I’d make a play on words. When asked how I was, I’d respond, “Fair to Midland, and after that, it’s just plain hot to New Mexico.”

When we were spring cleaning the garage, Mom said, let’s just get rid of all these boxes. We haven’t opened them in 20 years. I said, let’s sort through them first. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

This idiom owes its origin to the olden time when bathing was rare and a family experience. Before modern plumbing and household water heaters, it was a significant task for the family to bathe. Water had to be heated on the stove or over a fire, then added to a tub. In many families, it was customary for father and mother to bathe first. Then came the children in order of oldest followed by younger siblings ranked by age. The baby would be last to be washed. After a family of 12 to 15 had bathed, the water could be pretty murky and easily able to hide an infant. The meaning of this term is that something good may be lost when other things are thrown away. Source: World Wide Words.

Copyright (2021) Harold Zeitung All rights reserved

Click here to receive notifications by email whenever I publish.

If you like my writing, buy me a cup of coffee here.

Editors, please contact me if you feel my style of writing would be a good fit for your publication.

“He’s a bad ‘en, he is. He’ll come to a bitter end.” Find out what this idiom means by reading the story below.