[Jeff Tompkins]

A few that I've always hated are:

- "dot every I and cross every T"
- "heads will roll"
- "a few irons in the fire"
- "put on your game face"

Anyway, when someone uses these, I immediately get distracted from what they're saying and I think about the phrase in a literal sense.

An idiom that is getting on my nerves recently is "thrown under the bus." So, if this were literal, and it was getting news coverage, I figure this is what a story might look like:

Feds: Too Many People Thrown Under Bus
by Jeff Tompkins
6/16/11

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The National Transportation Safety Board today released the stunning results of a year-long study regarding bus safety.

The government agency announced that several million people have been "thrown under a bus" at some point in the last several years.

"We were stunned by the stunning results of this stunning report," NTSB spokesperson Anita Crowley said Thursday. "Since the inception of this agency, we have never seen so many people injured by an idiomatic phrase."

The 379-page report included a hundreds of examples of people who have been thrown under buses in the recent past, such as people who were fired for something someone else (usually a "higher-up") did; friends of friends who have to explain something to their significant other, such as why they came home at 4 a.m. smelling of beer and perfume; and people who have mismanaged political campaigns, wars and network programming.

The NTSB is urging people to stop throwing other people under buses, not only because it is dangerous but also, as the report states: "The vast majority of the nation's buses are not running due to the long and quite disgusting process of cleaning human remains from the underside of all those buses."

 

[spotsmom]

A friend of mine and I used to keep a list of all the work-related buzzwords, but we started laughing in meetings.

"Run it up the flagpole", "put it in your toolbox", etc.

 

[nomesque]

I'm entirely too fond of metaphors, so I can generally handle them fine... although I was yelling at the TV a couple of months ago about the extreme overabundance of the phrase 'things are really heating up' (and one channel's 'things are really hotting up' *shudder*) in TV-series advertising. ALL the shows were flaming wreckages, apparently.

On wandering off to look up the exact difference between an 'idiom' and a 'cliche' (link here if you're pondering likewise), I came across a list of comparable idioms to 'kick the bucket' in various languages, and got intrigued. Just in case anyone's interested, here's the (cleaned up) list:

Polish: kopnąć w kalendarz ("to kick the calendar")

Bulgarian: da ritnesh kambanata ("да ритнеш камбаната", "to kick the bell")

Dutch: het loodje leggen ("to lay the piece of lead")

Finnish: potkaista tyhjää ("to kick nothing", or more literally "to kick the absence of something")

French: manger des pissenlits par la racine ("to eat dandelions by the root")

Spanish: estirar la pata (to stretch the foot)

German: den Löffel abgeben ("to give the spoon away") or ins Gras beißen ("to bite into the grass")

Latvian: nolikt karoti ("to put the spoon down")

Portuguese, bater as botas ("to beat the boots")

Danish, at stille træskoene ("to take off the clogs")

Swedish, trilla av pinnen ("to fall off the stick")

Greek: τινάζω τα πέταλα ("to shake the horse-shoes")

(info taken from Wikipedia)

 

[The Hooded Claw]

I also get tired of idioms!  That's why I hang out on KB where more intelligent people can be found. I don't like to associate with maroons and other stolid people.

 

[Marcin Wrona]

I like idioms generally, but some see entirely too much use.

I'm also very tired of bus-throwing. Find another metaphor, ladies and gents of the media.

 

[tsilver]

"hit the ground running"

At the organization where I used to work, almost every performance report I read of someone up for an award included a sentence that the employee had hit the ground running.

 

[LauraB]

"Think outside the box." 

I question if  people who use this sentence are capable of doing so  .  I think if they were they could come up with something else to say.

 

[NogDog]

Hmm...technically, couldn't "get tired of" be considered an idiom?

 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I also get tired of idioms! That's why I hang out on KB where more intelligent people can be found. I don't like to associate with maroons and other stolid people.

LOL! I did think the topic was "Does anyone else get tired of idiots?"

Betsy

 

[Thumper]

I love idioms, when used cleverly and correctly...

 

[Jeff Tompkins]

Hmm...technically, couldn't "get tired of" be considered an idiom?

An excellent question, and I'm not sure what the answer is.

So I'll just amend my question: Does anyone else get sick and tired of idioms to the point where it takes a toll on you and you're all fed up and tuckered out?

 

[EGranfors]

I don't let my regular characters use them unless the character is fairly dumb. But I have a book about a girl learning English (Some Rivers End on the Day of the Dead) and she finds herself baffled by American idioms and always "in hot water" over word choice!

 

[EGranfors]

ps--You haven't lived until you've read high school essays that turn normal idioms into new phrases like "dog eat dog world" becomes "a doggy dog world."  Lord help us.

 

[Ilyria Moon]

I'd rather die than suffer a workplace and all it entails. Like 'buzzwords'. *shudder* When I think of the future, I worry I'll have to get a job. I do actually work, just from home. I've been fortunate to avoid offices thus far. When I'm somewhere I don't want to be, my fight or flight kicks in after about fifteen minutes. I'd be fired on my first day.

 

[JFHilborne]

"hit the ground running"

At the organization where I used to work, almost every performance report I read of someone up for an award included a sentence that the employee had hit the ground running.

Oh, yes, this one gets right on my wick. I dislike most corporate idioms, especially: "let's touch base," and "let's talk offline." Here's some good corporate sayings and their real meanings: http://www.marynowski.com/Jokes/Corporate%20Sayings.html

 

[Not Here]

It depends really. Sometimes they work, especially in comical books but on the whole I think it's a bad idea. I think what really annoys me is when people say literally when they aren't being literal. For instance, "She literally lost her head." Really? Literally? Ugh.