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Events that rarely or might never happen. "Once in a blue moon " refers to a rare event. [8] "Don't hold your breath" implies that if you hold your breath while waiting for a particular thing to happen, you will die first. [9] Having to wait for something “until the cows come home”.
Synonym for death (neutral) Pop one's clogs [2] To die Humorous, [1] Informal [2] British. "Pop" is English slang for "pawn." A 19th-century working man might tell his family to take his clothes to the pawn shop to pay for his funeral, with his clogs among the most valuable items. Promoted to Glory: Death of a Salvationist: Formal Salvation ...
Catch-22 (logic) A flowchart showing Joseph Heller's original Catch-22. A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations. [ 1 ] The term was coined by Joseph Heller, who used it in his 1961 novel Catch-22.
Pleonasm (/ ˈpliː.əˌnæzəm /; from Ancient Greek πλεονασμός (pleonasmós), from πλέον (pléon) 'to be in excess') [1][2] is redundancy in linguistic expression, such as in "black darkness," "burning fire," "the man he said," [3] or "vibrating with motion." It is a manifestation of tautology by traditional rhetorical criteria ...
Ain't is a negative inflection for am, is, are, has, and have in informal English. In some dialects, it is also used for do, does, did, and will. The development of ain't for the various forms of be, have, will and do occurred independently, at different times. The use of ain't for the forms of be was established by the mid-18th century and for ...
No such thing as a stupid question. " (There's) no such thing as a stupid question" is a common phrase, that states that the quest for knowledge includes failure, and that just because one person may know less than others, they should not be afraid to ask rather than pretend they already know. In many cases, multiple people may not know, but ...
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. [2] For example, in the English language, the words begin, start, commence, and initiate are all synonyms of one another: they are synonymous. The standard test for synonymy is substitution: one form can be ...
Hello, with that spelling, was used in publications in the U.S. as early as the 18 October 1826 edition of the Norwich Courier of Norwich, Connecticut. [1] Another early use was an 1833 American book called The Sketches and Eccentricities of Col. David Crockett, of West Tennessee, [2] which was reprinted that same year in The London Literary Gazette. [3]