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The idiom is commonly used in addiction recovery terminology to describe the reluctance of friends and family of an addicted person to discuss the person's problem, thus aiding the person's denial. Especially in reference to alcohol abuse, the idiom is sometimes coupled with that of the pink elephant, "the pink elephant in the room."
Another idiom of improbability is 畑に蛤 (Hata ni hamaguri) which means "finding clams in a field". Latin – ad kalendas graecas ("to the Greek Kalends") signified indefinite postponement, since the Greek calendar had no Calends period; also cum mula peperit = "when a mule foaled".
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).
Sticky wicket (or sticky dog, or glue pot) [1] is a metaphor [2] used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket , caused by a damp and soft wicket .
It has also come to mean that a person ended up in a strange or difficult situation; [4] "A complexly bizarre or difficult state or situation conceived of as a hole into which one falls or descends". [7] The idiom is also used to describe drug use, and the experience of an addict. [8]
Biting the bullet" is a metaphor which is used to describe a situation, often a debate, where one accepts an inevitable impending hardship or hard-to-refute point, and then endures the resulting pain with fortitude.
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]
Tolkien then has the character Bilbo create a proverb "Escaping goblins to be caught by wolves!", noting the modern frying pan/fire equivalent "in the same sort of uncomfortable situation". [ 13 ] The proverb has equivalents in other languages, and is used as a title in a similar way; for instance, in Swedish the proverb is Ur asken i elden ...