Old sayings?

I once heard someone say her husband had a 'vast economy' so they weren't going to have any more children.

My daughter, after watching her brother on a wind surfing simulator (she was only about 8 at the time) said he'd been on a stimulator for over half an hour.

 

This one reminds me of a story my mum once told me. Her and my dad were in the building society applying for a mortgage for their first house together. My mum was apparently bursting with excitement. The bank manager asked my dad "what is you current occupation?". Before my dad had chance to even open his mouth, my mum blurted out "He's a dragon wiver". (At the time he drove wagons for a living). She said the manager just gave her a pitiful look for a moment, then turned to my dad.

EDIT: Just remembered another. Way before we were married, when my now wife and I had been going out for just a couple of weeks, we were on our way to see her auntie. She mentioned that her autie has an elderly dog, and being keen to keep the conversation flowing, I asked her what breed it was. The reply came "Its a corderolli" (it was a border collie).

EDIT2: And another. The now wife and I were sat in a pub just getting to know each other. She asked me what star sign I was. I told her I was Leo, and born in the year of the Tiger. That gives me the dignity and strength of a big cat, but it also makes me 'chilled back and laid out'.

 

"swinging the lead" where does that one come from? i only thought of it cos i told someone today that my son was swinging the lead today, trying to fake illness and stay off skl. but if you think about it, it makes no sense!!

I know the term "fed up" comes from falconry. If you feed your falcon/bird of prey too much, they won't hunt for a few days and just sit about, looking forlorn

"Freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from days of wooden ships and pirates! a Brass Monkey was a brass triangle that the cannon balls were stacked on. When it froze and contracted, the balls fell off :lollol:

 

seems to be the commonest explanation

swing the lead/swinging the lead - shirk, skive or avoid work, particularly while giving the opposite impression - almost certainly from the naval practice of the 19th century and before, of taking sea depth soundings by lowering a lead weight on the end of a rope over the side of a ship. (According to etymologist Michael Quinion, the lead lump weighed nine pounds and had tallow - grease - on its base, which also enabled a sea bed sample to be brought up from below; the rope had colour coded markers to help gauge the depth.) It seems entirely logical that the impression would have stemmed from the practice of time-wasting while carrying out the depth soundings: a seaman wishing to prolong the task unnecessarily or give the impression of being at work when actually his task was finished, would 'swing the lead' (probably more like allow it to hang, not doing anything purposeful with it) rather than do the job properly. A lead-swinger is therefore a skiver; someone who avoids work while pretending to be active.

 

Some real funnies in here! :hehe:

I am laughing out loud at them.

 

aha! i thought there#'d be some old fashioned explaination for it, thanks :thumb:

 

" A Deaf Husband and a Blind Wife are always a Happy couple ":wink:


"A Mans got to do what a mans got to do, a woman must do what he cant":wink:

music.

 

Great thread.
I remember someone saying something was ' the real macaw' (McCoy):hehe:

 

"Swinging the lead" also comes from the Navy. I think it's from the times they used to use lead weights to judge the depth of water. If you were just "swinging the lead" you were wasting time pretending to be doing something when you should have been dropping it in the water.

 

My old gran (god rest her) used to come away with some sayings.one i remember ,which is true to life . as she would say in her scots tongue . ye see son there's the MC TACKS and there's
the MC GEES , THE PROBLEM WITH THE WORLD ,THERE ARE MORE MC TACKS ,THAN MC GEES!! meaning there are more TAKERS than GIVERS. :wink: music

 

here are some old sayings which someone may be able to decipher the meanings.
(1) you can't see the whole sky through a bamboo tube?.
(2) you'll never do anything behind you that wont come up in front of you?.
(3) a crowns no cure for a headache?.
(4) before you marry keep both eyes open, after marriage keep one eye shut?.
(5) eggs have no business dancing with stones?.
(6) he that first cries out "stop thief" is often he that has stolen the treasure?.

music

 

1) must be something about narrow/tunnel vision. openeing your eyes to see the whole pic.
the others, i ahve no idea lol

u know the one "rain on your parade"? well, i remember hearing an alternative to that........ "p*ss on your strawberries"

 

I would imagine number 6 means something like the person who accuses someone of crime is the person who has actually committed it :wink: