Login form
- Home
- Fun English
- Proverbs - sayings
- Meanings And Origins of Phrases, Sayings, Cliches And Quotes
Meanings And Origins of Phrases, Sayings, Cliches And Quotes
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
Meaning
The sad proverbial truth that friends become friendlier when they want something from you.
Origin
From Ennuis: 'Amicu certus in re incerta cernitur.'. Translated from the Latin as 'A sure friend is known when in difficulty.'.
Page 1
A BED OF ROSES
Meaning
A pleasant or easy situation.
Origin
From Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd To His Love.
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shphers feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves and myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lines slippers for the cold,
Fair lines slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
A BEE IN YOUR BONNET
Meaning
Preoccupied or obsessed with an idea.
Origin
Thought to have come from Robert Herrick's poem, 'Mad Maid's Song', 1648.
Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me!
Alack and well-a-day!
For pity, sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away.
I'll seek him in your bonnet brave,
I'll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think they've made his grave
I' th' bed of strawberries.
A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH
Meaning
It's better to have something small and reliable than something big and risky.
Origin
The same sentiment comes from the Bible, Old Testament, Ecclesiastes ix - A living dog is better than a dead lion.
A BIT OF A DO
Meaning
A party
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Meaning
Something or someone that returns after an absence.
Origin
Coined by radio DJs when playing old records.
A BLOT ON THE LANDSCAPE
Meaning
Something that spoils the view or ruins a previously comfortable situation.
Origin
T.E. Lawrence used it in a letter in 1912. Tom Sharpe published a novel - 'Blott on the Landscape' in 1975.
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
Meaning
A surprise.
Origin
Like a bolt of lightening from a blue sky.
A BUN IN THE OVEN
Meaning
Pregnant - Oven = womb, baby = bun
A BUNCH OF FIVES
Meaning
A fist or a punch.
Origin
The fives are the five fingers.
A BUNNY BOILER
Meaning
An obsessive and dangerous female, in pursuit of a lover who has spurned her.
Origin
From the 1987 film Fatal Attraction. The plot concerns a woman scorned, played by Glenn Close, who obsessively pursues her ex lover, played by Michael Douglas. The phrase comes from the plot device where the woman boils the man's daughter's pet rabbit.
A CHRISTMAS BOX
Meaning
A gift given at Christmas.
Origin
Churches used to collect money in boxes for distribution to the poor. This happened the day after Christmas Day and gave Boxing Day its name.
