Post a idiom/expression you imagined literally

Post Reply New Topic

I'll start.

Once when a friend of mine hadn't seen someone we both knew and liked, in years, then she saw this person in a supermarket, and she excitedly said to me: "you'll never guess who I saw, not in a million years!" I pictured in my head me in a million years time saying to my friend "aw, I give up, tell me who you saw!"

I tend to picture a greenhouse when somebody says:

"Whoever is without sin, cast (throw) the first stone."

I picture discontented people throwing stones at the windows of the greenhouse.

Well...its sounds to me like you have two different sayings conflated.

That, with "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones".

The saying "he is with out sin can cast the first stone" IS brutally literal in origin. It comes from the New Testament tale of Jesus. He encounters villagers about to stone a woman to death for adultery in the public square. Jesus says that phrase to the assembled crowd, and one by one each villager puts down his rock and goes away, and soon no one was left to "cast any stones". So the woman was spared. So Your image is actually a step down in drama, rather than a step up, from the intended image.

The glass house, on the other hand, is quite fun to visualize. An ultra modern A frame house with three floors, but made entirely of glass. But tastefully furnished by Ikea, and with the latest entertainment center. The floors are glass too. I guess that the ceilings would be glass too (but "glass ceilings" are a whole nother metaphor, and topic. Lol!). And then someone living in the house foolishly throws a rock, and...the whole fabulous home turns into a pile of blood stained jagged shards!

"You look a little green around the gills".
Not the looking green part so much, but having gills like a fish does. I thought it was weird since humans don't have gills.

two birds with one stone

i just see two birds and a stone lol

Pretty please, with a cherry on top.

Ha, that's milder than the original at least! I'm used to the full "to kill two birds with one stone" version. Sometimes I modify the more agressive expressions in my head... "Save two birds with one net" to mean the same thing, but nicer

To answer the first question, "Kick the bucket" always brings an image to mind.

more animal friendly xD

I frequently imagine the phrase "bend over backwards" literally, especially if it's written and not said aloud.

When I thought about that, it hurt.

Cats can do that, seen them do it. Might be a magic trick though because they are crafty animals

I imagine them all literally. Some are less pleasant than others. My housemate recently said a phrase that is apparently common among tradesmen but I'd never heard it before. He said "I s**t the bed this morning" which metaphorically means he got up earlier than usual.

Gross.

^Never heard that one as well. Strange

Probably an Aussie thing LOL

The phrase I hope, not the literal habit!

Two things, song related come to mind:

The ZZ Top song: Legs. "She's got legs, and she knows how to use them."

I always think: "So.........they're singing about a woman who is ambulatory." Why is that clever?

The Culture Club song: "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?"

My thought: Answering negatively or affirmatively works equally well depending on listener.

when I was about 5 or so, I remember hearing on a radio, a news blurb about hippie university students at the Berkeley campus walking around smoking pot, and in my little kid mind I was picturing a bunch of long-haired kids with pot handles with flames on the ends of 'em sticking out of their mouths.