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Cut and run or cut-and-run is an idiomatic verb phrase meaning to "make off promptly" or to "hurry off". The phrase was in use by the 1700s to describe an act allowing a ship to make sail quickly in an urgent situation, by cutting free an anchor.
The expression "macaroni and cheese" is an irreversible binomial.The order of the two keywords of this familiar expression cannot be reversed idiomatically.. In linguistics and stylistics, an irreversible binomial, [1] frozen binomial, binomial freeze, binomial expression, binomial pair, or nonreversible word pair [2] is a pair of words used together in fixed order as an idiomatic expression ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Left high and dry; Three sheets to the wind, meaning "staggering drunk," refers to a ship whose sheets have come loose, causing the sails to flap uncontrolled and the ship to meander at the mercy of the elements. Also, "Three sheets in the wind, unsteady from drink." [3]
A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
An idiom is a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making any literal sense. Categorized as formulaic language , an idiomatic expression's meaning is different from the literal meanings of each word inside it. [ 1 ]
Fish or cut bait is a colloquial expression, dating back to the 19th-century United States, that refers to division of complementary tasks. It has multiple uses that have evolved over time, but all generally convey that an important decision must be made, often immediately, and failing to make a choice is to make oneself a useless obstruction.
Much hay was originally cut by scythe by teams of workers, dried in the field and gathered loose on wagons. Later, haying was accomplished with horse-drawn implements such as mowers. After hay was cut and dried, it was raked or rowed up by raking it into a linear heap by hand or with a horse-drawn implement. Turning hay, when needed, originally ...