The British are all idioms

[RH1]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow73

Bless your heart has a ton of potential meanings in my experience! Your post brought this one back to mind:

Mad as a wet hen

Love that one! Presumably it means mad as in angry, not bonkers? I like it as the second one - I might start using it!

[Stormcrow73]

Originally Posted by RH1

Love that one! Presumably it means mad as in angry, not bonkers? I like it as the second one - I might start using it!

Yes it means angry and not bonkers! But feel free to adapt it if you like.

[Franklyn]

Over here that usually is used the same way, only more gender specific - but not always. Adds a "sneakiness" factor.

[chilaili]

Originally Posted by WoodwardGirl

LOL, first at getting asterisked out, then at getting it wrong, myself! Thanks for the translations.

let's add:

"have a dekko" (is this still in use? Often used to see it in British novels, but less so these days... always wondered if it was from an Asian word, or somehow related to "recce" which I think came from Re-connoitre, a word that is used but not really ever abbreviated in the US)

"Have a dekko" actually comes from India and the good ol' colonial Raj times . Dekko is a Hindi word meaning "a look". A similar phrase is "Have a shufti," which comes from Arabic and also means "look".

Some of my favourites are:
He's barking (ie; insane)
About as useful as a chocolate teapot
Swings and Roundabouts - short for What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts (Ie; what you lose on one thing, you gain back somewhere else)

[WoodwardGirl]

Originally Posted by chilaili

"Have a dekko" actually comes from India and the good ol' colonial Raj times . Dekko is a Hindi word meaning "a look". A similar phrase is "Have a shufti," which comes from Arabic and also means "look".

Some of my favourites are:
He's barking (ie; insane)
About as useful as a chocolate teapot
Swings and Roundabouts - short for What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts (Ie; what you lose on one thing, you gain back somewhere else)

Thank you for clearing that up for me! Had always wondered where Dekko came from! Now I want a chocolate teapot. Had not heard swings and roundabouts... will insert that one into conversation at the earliest possible.

[RH1]

Originally Posted by chilaili

"Have a dekko" actually comes from India and the good ol' colonial Raj times . Dekko is a Hindi word meaning "a look". A similar phrase is "Have a shufti," which comes from Arabic and also means "look".

Some of my favourites are:
He's barking (ie; insane)
About as useful as a chocolate teapot
Swings and Roundabouts - short for What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts (Ie; what you lose on one thing, you gain back somewhere else)

I'd never heard dekko before. I used shufti before but wasn't aware of its origins - very interesting.

Swings and roundabouts is a funny one - I had a vague idea of its meaning but hadn't really thought about it.

Horses for courses is a similar one isn't it? Meaning that some horses are good on certain courses and not on others, ie you should pick the appropriate option for each situation. Often used to subtley disparage someone else's idea in a meeting. lol.