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Writer's pictureJace Shoemaker-Galloway

Silly Sayings Day: WTH does that mean?


Don't get your dander up but it's time to spill the beans! Besides International Skeptics Day and No Bra Day, Oct. 13 is the cat's meow! It's Silly Sayings Day, an annual "holiday" created by Jace Shoemaker-Galloway, the "Queen of Holidays", that celebrates silly sayings and phrases.

Like fashion, popular catch phrases, interesting expressions and witty sayings tend to come and go. While some of today's most popular phrases include a slew of easy-to-use acronyms like LOL, BFF and BRB, many popular phrases from days gone by are still used today. But have you ever really stopped to think what these sayings actually mean?

Take a peek at a few of the sayings below and try to figure out what these once popular phrases actually mean. Give it a go and take your best shot!

Silly Sayings and Phrases

  • It's raining cats and dogs

  • Look what the cat dragged in

  • The cat's pajamas

  • The cat's meow

  • Cat got your tongue?

  • A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

  • Bats in the belfry

  • A dog is a man's best friend

  • Hair of the dog that bit you

  • Bark up the wrong tree

  • Barking mad

  • Your chickens will come home to roost

  • Don't count your chickens before they hatch

  • High on the hog

  • Knee high to a grasshopper

  • Bee's knees

  • Fly in the ointment

  • Snug as a bug in a rug

  • Like a bull in a china shop

  • Get your goat

  • Get off your high horse

  • Straight from the horses mouth

  • Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

  • Horse feathers

  • Chew the cud

  • You can lead a jackass to water, but you can't make him drink!

  • Long in the tooth

  • Go berserk

  • Off your rocker

  • Mind your Ps and Qs

  • Loose lips sink ships

  • Caught red-handed

  • Look before you leap

  • Tickled pink

  • Tickle my fancy

  • Funny bone

  • Skip to my Lou

  • For Pete's sake (who is Pete?)

  • Heavens to Betsy (who is Betsy?)

  • Heaven forbid

  • To hell in a hand basket

  • The jig is up

  • Face the music

  • Get your dander up

  • Fly by the seat of your pants

  • Head over heels

  • Beat around the bush

  • An empty gun makes the loudest bang!

  • Bite the bullet

  • Dead ringer

  • The sky's the limit

  • Straighten up

  • Kick the bucket

  • A drop in the bucket

  • Don't spill the beans

  • Slower than molasses in January

  • Fancy pants

  • A good man is hard to find

  • Hanky panky

  • Three sheets to the wind

  • Sticky wicket

  • Elbow grease

  • Old fogey

  • Hissy fit

  • Alive and kicking

  • Dead as a doornail

  • Where there is a will, there is a way

  • Always a bridesmaid, never a bride

  • Holy cow

  • Holy Toledo

  • Holy smokes

  • Jeepers creepers

  • Rise and shine

  • My stars

  • Come in if your nose is clean

  • That's the berries!

  • Hell bent

  • Don't get your dander up

  • On cloud nine

  • On the wagon

  • Once in a blue moon

  • Go to pot

  • Golly

  • Gee wiz

  • Gee Willikers

  • Dadgum it

Happy Silly Sayings Day!

Sources:

The Phrase Finder: The meaning and origin of expressions

LJWorld: Old sayings and the Meanings Behind Them

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