The origin of the phrase 'sick as a dog' can be found in the early 1700's, when it was common to compare undesirable things to dogs. The explanation for this isn't that people didn't like dogs, it is that diseases such as the plague were often spread via animals like rats, birds, and unfortunately, dogs.
informal. : very tired : exhausted We were all tired, dog-tired, until an event that galvanized everybody into life.—
Another form of this idiom is have a finger in every pie, meaning “to have an interest in or be involved in everything,” as in She does a great deal for the town; she has a finger in every pie.
Let's take the oldest first. The expression is said by some to derive from the Emperor Nero, who famously 'fiddled while Rome burned' and was a byword for corruption and dishonesty. The second suggestion is that the 'fiddle' was the name of the raised edge of the square wooden plates used by sailors.
Answer: It originates from a boxer called Larry Foley in the 1890s, before boxing was fully legalised. He won the biggest prize of about $150,000 dollars and a newspaper article in New Zealand had the headline “Happy As Larry” and the phrase stuck.
The phrase “as fit as a butcher's dog” means a person is extremely fit and healthy even in a challenging situation. In fact, the allusion shows that a butcher's dog is given meat and scraps of meat after an animal was slain and sold. The dogs may even be overweight by eating all the scraps and not necessarily fit.
phrase. If you say that someone or something fits the bill or fills the bill, you mean that they are suitable for a particular job or purpose.
: of the same kind or nature : very much alike —usually used in the phrase birds of a feather Those two guys are birds of a feather. Note: The expression birds of a feather flock together means that people who are alike tend to do things together.
An ordinary, average person, as in It will be interesting to see how the man in the street will answer that question. This expression came into use in the early 1800s when the votes of ordinary citizens began to influence public affairs.
[British] or make a face. to show a feeling such as dislike or disgust by twisting your face into an ugly expression, or by sticking out your tongue. She made a face at the musty smell, and hurried to open the windows.
2 : cheat, swindle. 3 : to alter or manipulate deceptively for fraudulent gain accountants fiddling the books— Stanley Cohen.
to be less important or in a weaker position than someone else: I'm not prepared to play second fiddle to Christina anymore - I'm looking for another job! SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. Of little or less importance. be in/under sb's shadow idiom.
play (someone) like a fiddleTo easily and deftly manipulate someone to suit one's own needs, ends, or benefits. That travelling salesman played me like a fiddle.
Why, look you now how unworthy a thing you make of me: you would play upon me. You would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to my compass. And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ. Yet cannot you make it speak.
•flute player (noun)flutist.
And there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak?" (Jesus Ortiz) Hamlet compares himself to a pipe that is being played by Guildenstern. This metaphor symbolises Hamlet as a pipe that is trying to be played by someone who cannot play the pipe.
To play first fiddle to take a leading or a subordinate part.
