Let's list all idioms & slangs we know that contain animals

[Sherry Liao]

(a case of) dog eat dog: a situation in business, politics, etc. where there is a lot of competition and people are willing to harm each other in order to succeed. Ex. a dog-eat-dog world. / I am afraid in this line of work it's a case of dog eat dog.

a fish out of water: A person who feels uncomfortable or awkward because he or she is in surroundings that are not familiar.

[Kooper]

a bear hug: an act of putting your arms around someone and holding them tightly, because you are happy to see them or you want to show that you like them a lot

[toshi]

a wolf in sheep's clothing = a wolf in a lamb's skin = 偽君子

[Sherry Liao]

What if it is a compound word that contains animals in it? Like these:

make a mountain out of a molehill: to make a slight difficulty seem like a serious problem.
play gooseberry: to be with two people who are having a romantic relationship and who would prefer to be alone.

[technobabel]

What if it is a compound word that contains animals in it? Like these:

make a mountain out of a molehill: to make a slight difficulty seem like a serious problem.
play gooseberry: to be with two people who are having a romantic relationship and who would prefer to be alone.

You mean like this...

台客 is the term that is often used to pigeonhole a particular segment of "down-to-earth" Taiwanese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonholing

[Sherry Liao]

You mean like this...

台客 is the term that is often used to pigeonhole a particular segment of "down-to-earth" Taiwanese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonholing

Could I just "pigeonhole" beef and ivory as animals, then?

Where's the beef?: something that you say when you think someone does not have enough ideas to make their plans work.

an ivory tower: a place or situation where you are separated from the probelms and practical aspects of normal life and therefore do not have to worry about or understand them

[Kooper]

pet phrase: 口頭禪

pet peeve: something that you strongly dislike because it always annoys you

[Sherry Liao]

the straw that breaks the camel's back: the last in a series of unpleasant events which finally makes you feel that you cannot continue to accept a bad situation.

play ducks and drakes with: a). to behave recklessly; to idly squander one's wealth. b) the pastime of skimming flat stones or shells along the surface of calm water.

[CarmenTao]

Dear Rock,
Just let her go!!


There are plenty of fish in the sea. 天涯何處無芳草

[Kooper]

Just learned this one from the article provided by Howard yesterday:

harebrained: foolish or impractical http://www.thefreedictionary.com/harebrained

Ex: a harebrained scheme

[technobabel]

You mean like this...

台客 is the term that is often used to pigeonhole a particular segment of "down-to-earth" Taiwanese.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigeonholing

Could I just "pigeonhole" beef and ivory as animals, then?

Beef and ivory are animal parts, there is really nothing you can do to make them into animals, unless the topic is cloning.
Pigeonholing is a way to put something in a narrow confinement.
Another example is 草莓族. 草莓族 is an example of pigeonholing of an entire generation.
It is pigeonholing because the definition of 草莓族 is relatively narrow and demeaning.
The antidote to pigeonholing is to "fight you way out"

[technobabel]

Perhaps we should let Barack Obama himself explain this controversial idiom:
Lipstick on a pig
This is not a difficult idiom, but as you can see idiomatic meaning of words can be easily twisted in the world of campaign politic.

[Kooper]

Don't forget the idiom Wayne C. shared with us before - be going to the dogs

Please refer to the thread provided below: http://122.116.234.216/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2268

[Sherry Liao]

There are many famous sayings that contain animals in them:

Don't count your chickens before they hatch: You should not be too confident that something will be successful, because something may still go wrong.

A man may lead a horse to water, but cannot make him drink: You can give someone the opportunity to do something, but you cannot force them to do it if they do not want to.

[Kooper]

FAT CAT has become the hottest phrase recently.



fat cat: someone who has too much money, especially someone who is paid too much for their job - used in order to show disapproval [Longman]

Brown targets fat cat pay after nationalizing banks in $37 billion bailout http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 933657.ece