this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
132 points (95.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

41963 readers
1000 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world


7) No Hit-and-Run questions.
Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.


8) No Bots.
Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I was thinking about the phrase 'The pot calling the kettle black'. It comes from a time where cooking was done over open fires and cookware would become visibly ashy. (Fun fact: It first appears and was perhaps coined by Cervantes in Don Quixote!)

What are some other idioms that have lost their literal connection to time? What would be a good modern replacement?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Eating a dead horse - not unless you buy the budget beef mince at Tesco

Read like rabbits - rabbits can't read or even hold books

Nip it in the butt - that's sexual assault, you're not allowed to do that any more

Get down off your high horse - you're not allowed to get animals high either

Kids should be shorn and not herd - goats have hair, not wool, and can't be shorn. Their natural tendency to herd is a difficult behaviour to break.

Under the weather - unless you're a pilot you're going to be under the weather most of the time

A blessing in the skies - unless your bishop is a pilot too, that's not going to happen.

Fight off more than you can chew - I don't know where to start with this one,

[–] crimsonpoodle@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I always thought it was “nip it in the bud” where a bud is the early stage of a plants development / before the flower emerges on a flower. So meaning “kill it before it grows larger and that becomes harder”

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Has to be trolling because they are all wrong.

[–] motruck@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] CalypsoGirl@lemmy.today 1 points 2 hours ago

And get off your high horse is right too. So the whole thing was a weird comment, leaving the readers uncertain if OP was trolling or just...yeah mostly trolling.

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

They probably messed that one up. I wonder how they meant to mangle it?

[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

You almost got me.

[–] rapchee@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

surely there's a /s or a trollface i'm missing

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not pulling your Greg, if that's what you mean.

You leave my Greg alone. He's perfectly capable pulling himself & if he needs help I have gloves!

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I was half expecting that to have been posted by LadyMondegreen