Idioms that Need to be Retired
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aja8888
Moderator Emeritus
"Where's the beef?"
Sorry, you flunk! It's 18:88 on most clocks I've seen ...I guess you could've drawn a rectangle with 88:88 in it, and written "AM" and "PM" on one side.
Stop the presses and hold the phone, it’s time to pump the brakes and put this one to bed. It’s starting to sound like a broken record. We’re burning the midnight oil and it’s just a bridge too far. The juice just ain’t worth the squeeze.
We’ve tried to turn a blind eye and take one for the team, but some of these fell off the turnip wagon. We can have a carbon copy, some had us in stitches and folks were pleased as punch but at the end of the day we’re all hosed. This is a real sticky wicket but nobody is lining their pocket. So, simmer down and hold your horses, put a sock in it. There’s no need to eat humble pie, bite the bullet or cry over spilt milk, we can watch the tape, dial a number or rewind the tape, but this thread is running on fumes.
Just remember a stitch in time, all this and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee. Just go sow some wild oats.
We’ve tried to turn a blind eye and take one for the team, but some of these fell off the turnip wagon. We can have a carbon copy, some had us in stitches and folks were pleased as punch but at the end of the day we’re all hosed. This is a real sticky wicket but nobody is lining their pocket. So, simmer down and hold your horses, put a sock in it. There’s no need to eat humble pie, bite the bullet or cry over spilt milk, we can watch the tape, dial a number or rewind the tape, but this thread is running on fumes.
Just remember a stitch in time, all this and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee. Just go sow some wild oats.
OP
OP
Qs Laptop
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Well done, MichaelB!
Christine
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I have been "running on the last percentage" a couple of times.
According to the battery meter in my electric car.
Don't know how well it translates into English.
Ronstar
Moderator Emeritus
Quite a montage!!
Northforker
Recycles dryer sheets
It's not brain surgery.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
They are on the same page.
It might be a make or break moment.
No need to reinvent the wheel.
They are on the same page.
It might be a make or break moment.
arbeadub
Recycles dryer sheets
Who let the cat out of the bag.
Enough room to swing a cat.
More than one way to skin a ---.
You can't change a Tigers stripes.
Playing cat and mouse.
Pussyfoot.
Enough room to swing a cat.
More than one way to skin a ---.
You can't change a Tigers stripes.
Playing cat and mouse.
Pussyfoot.
disneysteve
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This one isn't obsolete. It's still a thing.
We have monthly staff meetings. You can attend in person, you can join via Microsoft Teams, or you can dial in by calling the phone number given in Teams for the meeting. It actually says "Dial in - We'll give you a number to call."
jollystomper
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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"That's bad!" Meaning something cool or good. Though I still use it to confuse the youngsters.
Calling something "phat" - Also meaning something good or attractive, but will just get you into trouble these days.
"My peeps". Nuff said.
Calling something "phat" - Also meaning something good or attractive, but will just get you into trouble these days
."My peeps". Nuff said
.ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Wow, I'm surprised it actually says "Dial in", not just more generic "Call in". Wiki says that by the 90's touch-tone phones were the vast majority, so for 20-some-things it would already be a throw-back when they were growing up.
Related to the old terms and this topic (but not an idiom I guess - so please accept some minor thread-drift), I made a call the other day and heard something that, well, I can't recall the last time I heard it. And the technical telephony term for it jumped up from my old memory bank. It was an ATB signal! That's "All Trunks Busy", commonly called a "Fast Busy". It is used to indicate that the telephone circuits (trunks/trunk-lines) are tied up and can't handle another call, or some other network problem, or in some cases, the number dialed isn't a valid number.
Maybe these aren't so rare on cell phones (I make most of my calls from home VOIP phone)? But I don't recall getting one on my cell.
While DW wasn't familiar with "ATB" (not surprising), she did seem to be aware that the fast busy meant a line problem, you didn't actually get to the other person's phone to know if it was busy or not. Fast busy is the same tones as 'busy', just faster.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Reorder_tone.ogg
-ERD50
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USGrant1962
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Yea, I've been following this thread and it has devolved into a random list of idioms and old terms with little relation or rationale to OP's premise of "need to be retired". Many listed are just fine, IMHO.
And everyone knows what a dial-in number for a Zoom/Webex/Teams meeting is.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I don't know if this idiom has been dredged up on this thread or not... and don't give a rats a$$ if it has... but it drives me up the wall to hear... think out of the box... and anyone who disagrees hasn't got the sense God gave a gopher... put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving
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Andre1969
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I know that language evolves, but in the strictest sense, to "dial" something, don't you have to turn or twist it? In automotive jargon, I've heard the phrase "dialing in" a carburetor, but I think that's just a fancy way of saying "adjust the idle mixture screws"
But these days, I think "dial" is just a synonym for "call," for the most part.
I think it just refers to an indicator of something. Most likely originated with "sundial", a device that indicated the time of day. From the Latin "dialis" meaning daily.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Lots of things still have dials. Just not telephones.
mickeyd
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Very old TV sets fit this.
audreyh1
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Lots of modern things have dials. Pretty much any audio equipment including most cars. Microwaves it’s still common: mine has an interesting pushbutton dial for entering all numbers instead of a keypad - it works quite well, I think it’s a GE Profile typical UI. Most washing machines and dryers. Cookers - stovetops, grills, smokers. Many higher end camera bodies. Apple Watch and many watches in general. Lots of tools. Blah, blah, blah…..
OP
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Indeed. We just bought a new toaster/air fryer oven and it has dial controls for the time and the temperature settings which control a digital readout. It's quite intuitive and easy to use.
Andre1969
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It might be a regional/cultural thing, but I've considered those things on stoves, radios, etc, to be knobs, rather than dials. I guess in my opinion, if it sticks out, it's a knob. Even on a tv set.
However, I seem to recall the phrase, "Don't touch that dial!"
Somehow, "Don't touch that knob!" sounds kinda dirty
But, if someone wants to call it a dial instead of a knob, I'm not gonna pitch a fit over it. And, I think that's another regional/cultural thing. Most people would probably say "throw a fit".
However, I seem to recall the phrase, "Don't touch that dial!"
Somehow, "Don't touch that knob!" sounds kinda dirty
But, if someone wants to call it a dial instead of a knob, I'm not gonna pitch a fit over it. And, I think that's another regional/cultural thing. Most people would probably say "throw a fit".
OP
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It might be a regional/cultural thing, but I've considered those things on stoves, radios, etc, to be knobs, rather than dials. I guess in my opinion, if it sticks out, it's a knob. Even on a tv set.
However, I seem to recall the phrase, "Don't touch that dial!"
Somehow, "Don't touch that knob!" sounds kinda dirty
But, if someone wants to call it a dial instead of a knob, I'm not gonna pitch a fit over it. And, I think that's another regional/cultural thing. Most people would probably say "throw a fit".
Our toaster oven has dials, not knobs. There are no end stops on the dials. You could rotate them for hours. I'm certain they are not connected to a shaft, probably magnetic hall effect technology.
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