Current Events > Phrases you don't really get.

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I don't really get the phrase, "Batting .500". In the context of baseball, batting .500 is actually really, REALLY good. The average MLB batting average is .240-.250, so .500 would be twice as much as the average.

No love lost.

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

I would assume "batting five hundred" to mean that someone fails at a certain task about as often as they succeed. I have no actual idea how batting averages work though, but I don't think it really matters because I doubt most people who would use the expression would either.

Regardless, I've never heard that expression used before; I've always heard it as "batting a thousand", which I would interpret to mean that they have never failed at a certain task.

Anyway, the phrase I would throw in here is "you really are your father's son". No shit; really? What other father's son would I be?

CastletonSnob1 posted...

I don't really get the phrase, "Batting .500". In the context of baseball, batting .500 is actually really, REALLY good. The average MLB batting average is .240-.250, so .500 would be twice as much as the average.

Ive always heard it as batting a thousand as in 1.000 which is someone being absolutely correct.
2001mark posted...

No love lost.

There was never any love between the two people so one cant be the others lost love. Thats what I always took it to mean.

Could care less
Flying by the seat of your pants
Bullseye

This one's not a phrase, but it's phrase-adjacent. Every single time in the world that anyone says "je ne se quoi", they always pause beforehand as if they're trying to think of a word. It makes sense because the phrase itself is a confession that you don't know what word to use. The part I don't buy is that everyone who says this knows that much French instead of just pausing because everyone else who says this does it.

CastletonSnob1 posted...

I don't really get the phrase, "Batting .500". In the context of baseball, batting .500 is actually really, REALLY good. The average MLB batting average is .240-.250, so .500 would be twice as much as the average.

Maybe it's trying to put a positive spin on your crappy success rate.

I know the meanings to a lot of these.

MI4_REAL posted...

I know the meanings to a lot of these.

It ain't wealth, but I guess it makes you cackle on the inside to be the one hoarding for a change.

Looking a gift horse in the mouth.

Ryven posted...

Looking a gift horse in the mouth.

I forget what it is exactly, but inspecting a horse's teeth gives you clues to its overall condition. Like maybe its age or something. So if you look a gift horse in the mouth, you're being picky when someone did something nice for you.

"Life is short"

Like, I get it, but the saying itself is flawed. What is there that you can experience that is longer than your life?

Xatrion posted...

"Life is short"

Like, I get it, but the saying itself is flawed. What is there that you can experience that is longer than your life?

It means that life depends on how much you do in life, not necessarily how long. Same as "it's not the number of years in your life, but the life in your years"

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

It ain't wealth, but I guess it makes you cackle on the inside to be the one hoarding for a change.

Googled this. It is in fact, a real idiom.

"Don't get old"

Xatrion posted...

"Life is short"

Like, I get it, but the saying itself is flawed. What is there that you can experience that is longer than your life?

It's just not meant to be read that way. It means you can easily run out of time before you do everything you want to do.

I'm starting to worry I'll die of old age before I finish some personal projects, for example.

All fingers and thumbs.

For being clumsy.
Surely it would be the opposite.

2001mark posted...

No love lost.

Sayoria posted...

A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush

Ryven posted...

Looking a gift horse in the mouth.

How do you guys not get these?

Head over heels

Isn't that how you're supposed to be?

JaiCSC posted...

All fingers and thumbs.

For being clumsy.
Surely it would be the opposite.

Isn't the phrase "all fingers and no thumbs?"

McmadnessV3 posted...

Isn't the phrase "all fingers and no thumbs?"

I thought it was "all thumbs" lol

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

Could care less

That one makes sense. The saying is "couldn't care less" and people are too dumb to get it.

"The end...or is it?"

To me it comes off like this says: "The end...or is it the end?"
I'd say it logically makes more sense if it's either "The end...is it?" or "The end...or isn't it?" because the word 'or' implies something different than what mentioned before that.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

Head over heels

Isn't that how you're supposed to be?

The phrase was originally "heels over head" in the 14th century, basically describing someone tumbling backwards. Over time, it changed to head over heels, presumably because it sounds better.

A lot of idioms are like that, really. Phrased in a way that sounds poetic, rather than what makes the most sense. Like saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too" instead of "you can't keep your cake if you've already eaten it."

Glob posted...

How do you guys not get these?

Are you actually offended that we didn't?

Ryven posted...

Are you actually offended that we didn't?

Offended? No. Just confused and surprised.

Always thought that " Drive it like you stole it" was one of the dumbest phrases ever. If I stole it, I'm driving speed limits, stopping at red lights, hell, I might even wear a seatbelt. Anything to not draw attention

sith9er posted...

Always thought that " Drive it like you stole it" was one of the dumbest phrases ever. If I stole it, I'm driving speed limits, stopping at red lights, hell, I might even wear a seatbelt. Anything to not draw attention

Not heard that one, but Id assume its more in reference to joy riders, who drive recklessly because they dont care if the car gets damaged.

Glob posted...

Not heard that one, but Id assume its more in reference to joy riders, who drive recklessly because they dont care if the car gets damaged.

It's 100% this. It's an idiom that basically means you drive a car like you don't care what happens to it. And we saw a lot of joyriding a few years ago. Kia's and Hyudai's were discovered to have a major security flaw that made them really easy to steal. And that info spread around on social media. Teenagers would steal one of those cars, speed, drift, do donuts, etc., and then abandon the car somewhere once they crashed it.

Feel weird being confused that nobody knows any of these sayings but also feel weird because apparently I can't call people out on very obvious sayings? lol

You can't have your cake and eat it too

how can you even eat a cake if you don't have it in the first place

even taking into account that you would (previously) have a cake and then not-have the cake (after eating)

what's the point of having a cake if you're not going to eat it

in the first place.

Make America great again. Reverse racism. Pushing p.

FL81 posted...

You can't have your cake and eat it too

how can you even eat a cake if you don't have it in the first place

even taking into account that you would (previously) have a cake and then not-have the cake (after eating)

what's the point of having a cake if you're not going to eat it

If you reverse it, it's a lot clearer: "You can't eat your cake and have it too." It's just saying you can either eat it or continue holding on to it but not both.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

"It's a dog eat dog world" can be misheard this way.

KingArthur3D posted...

Make America great again. Reverse racism. Pushing p.

one of my favorite things is white people think pushin p really meant pushin positivity and news channels and stuff were saying it lmaaaooo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC05EcxKBdQ

My shoe laces are too tight. I forgot how to dance

A man after my own heart.

ellis123 posted...

That one makes sense. The saying is "couldn't care less" and people are too dumb to get it.

I guess you can say they couldn't care less to get it right.

sith9er posted...

Always thought that " Drive it like you stole it" was one of the dumbest phrases ever. If I stole it, I'm driving speed limits, stopping at red lights, hell, I might even wear a seatbelt. Anything to not draw attention

Maybe you don't watch enough movies. When you steal a car or need to be discreet for whatever reason, you're supposed to peel off and alert the whole neighborhood.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


= For all intents and purposes.

Maybe I'm about to get whooshed now, but I've seen people write this incorrectly just as often as "I couldn't care less".

Aressar posted...

= For all intents and purposes.

Maybe I'm about to get whooshed now, but I've seen people write this incorrectly just as often as "I couldn't care less".

These incorrect hearings of phrases are a diamond dozen.

having your cake and eat it too is just too illogical to make sense.

why not say having your money and spend it too? or even "insert random food" and eat it too? having your soda and drink it too? having your ice cream and melt it too?

Unironically.

Right as rain.

ellis123 posted...

That one makes sense. The saying is "couldn't care less" and people are too dumb to get it.

No, "could care less" is the sarcastic version of "couldn't care less".

tankboy posted...

No, "could care less" is the sarcastic version of "couldn't care less".

No, its the idiot version.