Which American expressions are your favorites?

46 comments

1. As a midwesterner, I have to say it’s “ope”

   It’s universal

2. “Not my horse, not my pasture” has gone up the list a lot for me just because of how some foreigners react the first time they run across it. That and it’s an attitude I wish more people had.

3. I know it’s southern, but “slicker than snot on a doorknob”. usually used in winter when it ices, then snows. And it’s said like “slicker’n snot on a doorknob”. Such a visceral statement because you can imagine how many doorknobs you touch in a day, and how off putting it would be to grab one like that.

4. I hope I’m not correcting a regional variation, but I normally hear, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” It sounds snappier, too.

5. I work in sales and I can’t go a day without baseball idioms.

6. I once worked with a good ol’ boy who used the term “like a fart in a skillet” on a call with a customer.

   The quickness with which my head turned to him could have broken the speed of sound.

   So I guess that one.

7. “Happier’n a pig in shit.”

8. All hat, no cattle

9. All hat, no cattle.

   Meaning you talk a big game but can’t back it up.

10. I love all baseball idioms, particularly “He was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple.”

11. Second vote for “Ope.”

12. Had to Google it see what the history actually is, but growing up, my mom/grandma would always say that someone is “going to hell in a handbasket” when a person would publicly (with no shame) do something ‘bad’

    Looks like the saying *could* have it roots in the beheadings of royals, but Wiki also says it likely comes from:

    ​

    >In the 19th century, the phrase has been found associated with the American gold rush of the 1840s where men were lowered by hand in baskets down mining shafts to set explosives which could have deadly consequences.

13. “you can’t put the horse back in the barn”… Or my favorite Texas variant “you can’t put the shit back in the horse”

    Basically a “water under the bridge” substitute

14. My grandpa used to say, “It’s better than a jab in the eye with a sharp stick.”

15. I was recently informed that “disco nap” is an Americanism which was kind of surprising to me, although maybe it shouldn’t be because disco itself is American?

16. I’ll be there, lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise.

17. Loaded for Bear

18. 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag …

19. Is “Knock on wood” an American saying? I just like that people will actually seek out wood to achieve the knocking and will look genuinely upset if they say it then realize there’s no wood around

20. “Yeah, no.”

    “No, yeah.”

21. “Well, go ahead and wish in one hand and shit in the other and tell me which fills up first”

    Basically, its saying that wishing accomplishes nothing.

    Heard it first from a friend from the Mid-West

22. “Mess with the bull, you get the horns.”

23. “If you’re looking for sympathy it’s right between shit and syphilis in the dictionary”

24. “Bout as useful as tits on a bull”

25. It’s raining cats and dogs always stood out to me because even though English wasn’t my first language I immediately understood what they meant

26. “Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.” Is always a classic. Many other variations exist also.

27. Dryer than a popcorn fart.

    Colder than a witch’s tittie.

28. Up shit creek without a paddle

29. If you’re gonna be dumb, you better be tough.

30. Just for shits and giggles

31. The lights are on, but no one is home.

32. “Come hell or high water”

    Ie, whatever difficulties may occur: it’s going to happen.

    Or

    “Give it the whole nine yards”

    Might not be exclusively American, as the origins of the idiom are muddy, but it comes from the length of a machine gun belt in airplanes circa WWI being nine yards long (500 rounds). In essence it means “give it everything I’ve/you’ve/we’ve got”

33. Fell outta the ugly tree & hit every branch

34. “Slower than molasses in January,” or if its REALLY slow, “Slower than molasses going uphill in January.”

35. Growing up Southern, and never heard it anywhere else.

    **”I might could…”** “A (foreshortened?) “it might be possible for me to do if circumstances permit.”

36. It’s hotter than the devil’s ball sack

    Feels like walking through soup out here (humid)

    Not the sharpest tool in the shed

    What am I, chopped liver?

    Skinnier than a string bean

    The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

    Preaching to the choir

    Come hell or high water

37. “He thinks he’s all that and a side of fries!”

    (Many variations of this exist too)

    Also:

    “She’s built like a brick shit house!”

    ETA: Thought of another. Friend from rural Tennessee introduced me to “take a run at ol’ Dad.” Used as a challenge like “oh yeah? Try me.” In this case “ol’ Dad” can refer to anyone regardless of age or gender.

38. Git ‘R Dun!

39. “6 of one, half dozen of the other” is a good one.

    Also “it’s a poor mechanic that blames his tools”

40. My husband will say “it’ll make a turd” when he eats something that’s plain, boring or just “alright”. I guess that says something about my cooking…

41. “It’s a free country”, accompanied with a shrug.

42. “Who? you practicing to be an owl?”

43. I love southern… similes? Metaphors? I can never keep them straight.

    “He’s busier ‘n a one-legged man in a butt-kickin’ contest.”

    “I was more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full’a rockin’ chairs.”

    “He was runnin’ ’round, nekkid as a jay-bird.”

44. “sweating like a whore in church” is a classic

45. I heard a man, a real country sumbitch, say “I could fall in a barrel of tits and come out sucking my thumb.” That really stuck with me.

46. “Bless your heart”
    The phrase with many meanings 😂