Americans Idioms

figurative use of "at the end of the day" found in my searches was in 1955.

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when the dust settles

"When the dust settles, there will be five carriers on the East Coast." —Congressman Scott Rigell,
talking about the U.S. Navy changing where aircraft carriers are based (4/17/2012)

"You never know, when the dust settles at the end of our final eight episodes, where everybody's
going to be and who's going to be left standing." —Vince Gilligan, creator of the "Breaking Bad"
television series (7/3/2013)

When the dust settled, 347.9 million Facebook shares changed hands on Thursday... —The Wall
Street Journal (7/25/2013)

When the dust settles means when most of an activity is finished, and facts can be seen clearly.

The expression alludes to a storm or war or explosion, when the air must clear before anyone can
see what happened.

This is an early printed example of the phrase used figuratively:

"When the dust settles, the gentlemen at the top will discover that they have been trying themselves,
not Mitchell." —editorial in the Rochester Evening Journal and Post Express (10/14/1925)

See also, when all is said and done and at the end of the day, above.

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whipping boy

In response, Arpaio has played the victim, saying he is being used as "a whipping boy for a
national and international problem."—Boulder, Colo. Daily Camera (12/27/2011)

But the S.E.C. has become a favorite whipping boy of those hostile to market reforms. —The New
York Times (7/15/2011)

Ever since it became known that the plug-in hybrid car's batteries had burst into flames after
government crash tests, the Volt has become the whipping boy of Republican politicians. —
Bloomberg News (3/6/2012)

A whipping boy is someone selected for punishment, often unfairly.

In the Bloomberg News example, the oil industry would be a whipping boy if Congress decided to
increase taxes on the companies' profits.

In centuries past, whipping was an accepted punishment for children but not for the king's son. The
job of whipping boy was taking the punishment when the prince did wrong. (If the prince was
sensitive, he felt the pain psychologically.)

The phrase was used metaphorically in the 1800's. An article in the Nov. 22, 1873, Saturday
Review about "The Master of Greylands" by Ellen Wood said, "All her novels have their
specialized whipping-boy; and Flora Castlemaine, 'an indulged, selfish, ill-bred girl of twelve'...is
the whipping-boy in this."

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whistle past the graveyard, whistle in the dark

He dismissed the idea that "the tea party is a problem for Republicans" as "the left whistling past

the graveyard." —Los Angeles Times (2/12/2011)

"We need to have a vote to lift the debt ceiling, because the consequences of not doing so would
be quite serious indeed," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. "And those who
suggest otherwise are whistling past the graveyard." —Philadelphia Inquirer (5/17/2011)

Those who say that taxing "the rich" will pay for generous advantages for public employees are
whistling in the dark, for the wealthy can move out of state and don't have to face public wrath. —
Barstow, Calif., Desert Dispatch (2/22/2011)

Western talk of success in building up the Afghan state seems little more than whistling in the dark.
Not only is that state incorrigibly corrupt, in much of the country it barely exists. —The New York
Times (3/14/2012)

To whistle past the graveyard is to pretend to be happy or unconcerned when you are worried or
should be worried. The meaning of whistle in the dark is similar: pretend to be brave when you
are afraid.

Whistling sometimes is associated with pretending not to be frightened. The first song in the
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, The King and I (1951), begins:

Whenever I feel afraid
I hold my head erect
And whistle a happy tune
So no one will suspect I'm afraid

The earliest example in my searches is from the 18th Century:

...fellows who...bluster and vapour to hide the trembling limb...as children whistle in the dark to
brave the ghosts they dread! —"A Journey Over Land to India" by Donald Campbell (London,
1796)

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white collar, blue collar

Mark Bradford said he'd like to see "taller buildings downtown," attracting more white-collar jobs
to the area. —Bowling Green Daily News (10/21/2011)

The union representing municipal blue-collar workers has sued its employer, saying City Council
had no right to alter the...pension program. —The Philadelphia Inquirer (9/30/2011)

The blue collar worker versus the white collar worker. What's the difference? Is there a real
difference or just perception? —Naples Daily News (10/18/2011)

"So what's been happening to blue collar jobs...automation, outsourcing and digitization, is now
coming after white collar jobs as well." —Tom Friedman, opinion columnist and commentator
(6/2/2013)

White collar work is non-manual, referring to jobs that require the mind more than the hands. The
phrase is often used in white collar crime and white collar criminal, referring to non-violent (such
as financial) crime or to crime committed by white collar employees.

Blue collar refers to manual or industrial work or workers, but rarely to crime.

The phrases are based on the colors of typical shirts and uniforms worn in offices and factories in
the first half of the 1900's, but the phrase white collar was popular decades before blue collar. An
early example of white collar...

Manufacturers of all kinds of merchandise which requires a high grade of mechanical skill to
produce have been wondering for some time how, in the face of the desire of the average
American boy to do only "white collar" work, they are going to keep their shop organizations
complete without drawing too heavily upon the skilled labor of Europe. —The New York Times
(8/8/1920)

...and the earliest example I could find of blue collar:

Blacks are slowly but determinedly moving into white and blue collar jobs in the United States,
and at the same time, efforts are emanating from the black community to encourage that movement.
—Baltimore Afro-American (1/16/1943)

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white elephant

Critics counter that the effort to clean Fukushima Prefecture could end up as perhaps the biggest of
Japan's white-elephant public works projects—and yet another example of post-disaster Japan
reverting to the wasteful ways that have crippled economic growth for two decades. —The New
York Times (12/6/2011)

"Although some projects are white elephant buildings without any cash flow, China has a very
healthy fiscal position and is able to address the risks," the official said. —Reuters (6/13/2011)

"...when the baby boomers vacate their homes in the suburbs there's not going to be a market..."
The answer for some subdivisions—especially white elephant bank owned properties—has
already been the bulldozer. —The Sag Harbor Express (8/30/2013)

Rocha said she received the hat recently at a white elephant party, and her husband dared her to
put it on. —Contra Costa Times (12/18/2011)

A white elephant may be:
—Something that is costly but not productive, like the project in the New York Times example;
—An unprofitable commercial building (as in the Reuters example) or a house that is hard to sell
or costly to maintain (as in the Sag Harbor Express example);
—An unwanted gift. At a white elephant party, people bring objects they don't want and exchange
them as gifts, as in the Contra Costa Times example.

White elephant comes from popular stories about kings of Thailand who took revenge on people
they didn't like by giving them albino (white) elephants, which were expensive to keep. Examples
of the phrase used figuratively have been found as early as the 1850's.

In recent years white elephant sometimes has been confused with another expression and written as
"the white elephant in the room." But I have found one case in which that phrase made sense: It
referred to an unprofitable building that no one wanted to talk about:

"What to do with that building, it's still a white elephant in the room," said Council Chairman
Edward Pocock III. —Southington (Conn.) Patch (12/13/2011)

See also, elephant in the room.

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whittle away

The scope of Moammar Gadhafi's control was whittled away Wednesday as major Libyan cities
and towns closer to the capital fell to the rebellion against his rule. —Associated Press

(2/24/2011)

...Americans simply can't respond to higher gas prices by reducing the amount of gasoline they use,
and are caught in an energy trap as gasoline whittles away disposable income. —The New York
Times (11/6/2011)

U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.9 percent, the biggest gain since 2005 but an advance too
weak to whittle away at the unemployment rate... —Reuters (1/28/2011)

Lee school officials are working to whittle down the 3.9 percent proposed budget increase to 3
percent in an effort to ease the burden on taxpayers. —The Berkshire Eagle (3/19/2012)

Whittle away and whittle down mean reduce slowly, one piece or small amount at a time.

The phrases are used as metaphors for whittling, shaping something solid such as wood or soap by
cutting off small pieces with a knife. Printed examples have been found from as early as the
1700's.

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wiggle room

"Sell by" is for grocers to aid their stocking. It does not mean the food is spoiled after that date.
"Sell by" dates contain some wiggle room on that. —GateHouse News Service (4/26/2012)

Minnesota Legislature's calendar as the final day. Now Republican leaders are giving themselves
more wiggle room. House Speaker Kurt Zellers said Saturday that he's willing to hold the session
open into May... —KSTP-TV (4/29/2012)

"The politics might be a little bit different than the last time they addressed this issue. They're not
facing re-election this time, which might give them a bit more wiggle room." —Sarah Kliff, news
reporter, talking about the Obama administration's position on making "morning-after" birth control
pills easier to buy (4/5/2013)

Wiggle room means the ability to change position; to maneuver.

Wiggle room originally described shoes or gloves that left enough space for toes or fingers to
move around inside. An early example is a March 16, 1914 advertisement in the Hartford Courant:
plenty of "wiggle" room for your fingers. In my searches, the earliest example of wiggle room used
as a metaphor was published in 1958:

"Sending the marines into Lebanon was not necessarily a matter of wisdom, but of necessity,"
remarked Leland E. Becraft, executive director of the Community Chest. "As they sometimes say at
business meetings, I think President Eisenhower had to have some 'wiggle room.'" —St. Joseph
(Missouri) Gazette (7/22/1958)

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wild goose chase

Is he leading them truly or just on a wild-goose chase, waiting for them to drop off one by one,
from hunger and thirst and the elements, as the Kansas Indians did to the Spanish conquistadors?
—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (7/15/2011)

The announcement of the move almost a year ago underscored concerns in New Jersey about the
cost of doing business there and drew criticism from public officials who said they were led on a
wild-goose chase to find ways to keep Ocean Spray in the state. —Associated Press (4/17/2012

House Speaker Jase Bolger sent a letter Monday to all nine judges of the Ingham County Circuit
Court, telling them a proposal from Democrats to launch a grand jury investigation into the fake
candidate controversy in Grand Rapids is a politically motivated "wild goose chase." —Detroit
Free Press (8/28/2012

A wild goose chase is a search for something that will never be found, or a race to catch
something that cannot be caught. The thing may be impossible to find or catch, or, as in the Post-
Gazette example, the goal is imaginary and its purpose is tricking someone.

The phrase has been traced back to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, 1597. The original meaning
was an event in horseback riding, in which riders followed the leader in a V formation—similar to
the pattern in which geese fly.

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window dressing

John Coyle, a Washington lawyer hired by [the City of] New Bern, dismissed the utilities'
proposed fixes as a "joke" and "window dressing." —Charlotte Observer (10/18/2011)

Mangano says the bill will allow him to reopen contracts so he can get millions of dollars in union
concessions. But the proposed legislation...will do no such thing. It's window dressing... —
Newsday (10/17/2011)

Colleges should also invite speakers who reflect diverse viewpoints—and not merely as academic
window dressing. —Chronicle of Higher Education (10/16/2011)

The main purpose of window dressing is to improve the appearance or public image of something
or someone. Literally, window dressing is a display that a store makes to attract customers. Used
figuratively, the phrase usually is a criticism for pretending to take an action rather than doing
something meaningful.

"The Coming Democracy" by George Harwood, published in London in 1882, includes an early
example of the phrase used as a metaphor: "We live in an age which understands the art of
intellectual window-dressing."

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wishy washy

"Fireflies in the Garden" is a complicated family drama that resolves in a way that's not wishy-
washy, not ambiguous, not inconsistent and not in any way inartistic, and yet that strikes me as
wrong, presenting defeat masquerading as victory. —San Francisco Chronicle (10/14/2011)

...the town board's perceived wishy-washy response to calls for its commitment to public beach
access is causing concern... —The East Hampton Star (10/13/2011)

"...he really is so wishy washy on the issues that it's like trying to nail down Jell-O, getting him to
commit to any one position..." —Politico (10/12/2011)

Wishy washy means weak or ambiguous.

"Swish swash," no longer in use, has been traced to the 1500's and means a poor or watery drink.
Wishy washy also referred to weak drinks through the 1800's.

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witch hunt

In a surprising series of events, Turkey's top commander, Gen. Isik Kosaner, together with the
leaders of the navy, army and air force, simultaneously resigned to protest the sweeping arrests of
dozens of military generals over the past year as suspects in conspiracy investigations that many
people in Turkey have come to see as a witch hunt. —Seattle Times (7/29/2011)

Lee County is investigating its own transportation department for payroll fraud and misuse of
county vehicles...Lee County Manager Karen Hawes says she's not on a witch-hunt; she just wants
to get to the bottom of complaints involving Lee County's Department of Transportation. —
WBBH-TV (Ft. Myers, Fla., 7/26/2011)

I think it's turning into a witch-hunt." —Congressman Elijah Cummings, Democrat of Maryland,
referring to congressional hearings about the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya
(10/14/2012)

A witch hunt is persecution, a move to find and punish people who are believed to be enemies.
Sometimes the phrase is used to mean an unfair, or improperly motivated, accusation against an
individual.

The metaphor refers to trials of witches, who from the 1400's to 1700's were tortured and killed
because they were thought to be evil and have special powers.

George Orwell may have been among first to use the phrase to refer to people other than witches:

And meanwhile there is no possible doubt about the hatred and dissension that the ‘Trotsky-
Fascist' accusation is causing. Rank-and-file Communists everywhere are led away on a senseless
witch-hunt after 'Trotskyists'... —Homage to Catalonia (1938)

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word-of-mouth

Word-of-mouth has been a big source for securing early customers, which they have encouraged
through the use of social media. —Christian Science Monitor (2/14/2011)

Young adults, in particular, said they get more information about community events from word of
mouth than from any journalistic source. —Albany Times Union (3/24/2011)

As word of mouth grows, some readers report downloading or pre-ordering the book simply
because others have - and they don't want to miss out on the phenomenon. —The Boston Globe
(3/28/2011)

Word of mouth is person-to-person communication, the opposite of communication by mass
media such as newspapers and television.

The phrase has been traced as far back as the 1400's. Until the last century, it meant by speaking,
not by writing. Now, in addition to speaking, word of mouth may include activities in which the
mouth stays closed, such as "texting" and other personal messages sent electronically.

Buzz is often synonymous with word-of-mouth. Word of mouth and buzz are important to viral
marketing.

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work one's tail off (butt off, ass off)

"Bethani had to work her tail off just to get a ‘B' and she did." —Chicago (DuPage) Daily
Herald (10/13/2011)

"I'm damn proud of our code enforcement folks because they work their butts off." —South Bend
Tribune (10/10/2011)

"She's worked her ass off. She's been working since she was 15. When someone's a hard worker, I
like and appreciate that." —Denton Record-Chronicle (10/6/2011)

If you work your tail off, you work very hard.

Tail and butt are substitutes for the mildly vulgar ass. All three expressions have the same
meaning.

Many other verbs are combined in similar slang expressions with "tail off" or "butt off" or "ass
off" to mean a lot or severely. For example, "I laughed my butt off" (I laughed hard or loudly), or "I
froze my butt off" (I was very cold).

Examples have been found as early as the 1940's, but these phrases did not appear frequently in
print until the 1970's.

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worth one's salt

"No lawyer worth his salt can't fight a subpoena for a year." —Josh Rosner, managing director of
Graham Fisher & Co., a New York financial research firm (2/2/2011)

"You know, if you're a conservative and you haven't taken on a New York Times reporter, you're
not worth your salt as far as I'm concerned." —Rick Santorum, two weeks before he withdrew
from the race for the Republican nomination for President (3/27/2012)

"I wouldn't be a gossip columnist worth my salt without a little red-carpet coverage, so I hopped
down to South Philly on Sunday to attend the glamorous opening of the Phillie Phanatic's first
film..." —Molly Eichel, in a Philadelphia Inquirer blog (4/23/2013)

If you are worth your salt, you are competent; worth the money you are paid.

The origin of the phrase may involve the ancient connection between the words salt and salary, but
I could find no precise explanation.

Printed examples exist from the beginning of the 1800's. This one is in a novel:

At present she might be ornamental but she was of no use to any one in the whole wide world. As a
nurse she might be worth her salt and help to alleviate other people's sufferings. She had an iron
nerve... —"Miss Balmaine's Past" by B.M. Croker (1808)

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wring hands, hand-wringing

"What was striking about what happened on Friday was how quick the leaders of Congress were
out there wringing their hands. These are the architects of obstruction, and now they're complaining
about the pace of the recovery." —David Axelrod, campaign advisor to President Barack Obama
(6/3/2012)

Private investors and government wealth managers around the world wring their hands about the
trajectory of deficits and debt in the United States—and then buy more of that debt. —The New
York Times (7/7/2011)

"These public incidents—acute, dramatic—instigate and inspire people to say, look, enough with
the hand-wringing. Let's get to some public policy that can reflect our moral consciousness about

what we need to do." —Michael Eric Dyson, professor of sociology at Georgetown University
(12/16/2012)

Let the annual hand-wringing begin, when we once again fret over what drinks to serve at
Thanksgiving. —The Washington post (11/18/2011)

The big news in Washington last week was the failure of the congressional "supercommittee" to
compromise on a plan to reduce projected deficits over the next 10 years. Despite all the hand-
wringing about the panel's failure, few really expected it to succeed. Our hands went unwrung. —
Austin American-Statesman (11/27/2011)

If you wring your hands over, or about, something, you worry or agonize about it. Hand-wringing
means excessive or unnecessary worrying or sorrowing.

It is usually an unfriendly, critical allusion to someone who wrings hands (holds them together,
twisting and turning them).

The earliest examples of people wringing their hands (as early as 1603) referred to grieving
widows. An early example of hand-wringing used figuratively is in a poem published in 1835:

Then the weak door is barr'd, and the soul all sore,
And hand-wringing helplessness paceth the floor
—"Captain Sword and Captain Pen" by Leigh Hunt (London, 1835)

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writing on the wall, handwriting on the wall

Indeed, most of the world's advanced nations—and in this category I'll include China and India—
have seen the writing on the wall and have embraced policies that seek to aggressively develop
and deploy solar, wind and other renewable-energy resources. —The Arizona Republic
(5/9/2011)

"We were hoping they would come back, but that was just wishful thinking, I guess," Chandler
said. "We could pretty well see the handwriting on the wall." —The Asheville Citizen-Times
(8/30/2012)

The handwriting on the wall is clear. By allowing race-day medications, North American racing is
out of step with a world that no longer views our competition as the best and our horses as being
the highest quality. —The Lexington Herald-Leader (9/2/2012)

"Well, they are clearly open to some of these reforms...and that's been a shift in the military. They
see the writing on the wall." —Julian Barnes, news reporter (5/17/2013)

Seeing the writing (or handwriting) on the wall means recognizing warnings that something is
ending or will end soon.

The expression comes from the Book of Daniel in the Bible, in which only Daniel could recognize
that words on a wall predicted the end of the rule of King Belshazzar of Babylon.

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you bet, you betcha

"...when these sleaze peddlers try to make money with disgusting lies about his relationship with
his child, you bet he's going to sue." —Bert Fields, attorney for Tom Cruise (10/24/2012)

Was the medicine painful and politically unpopular? You bet. Ford's opposition to spending and

his pardon of Richard Nixon cost him re-election in 1976. —Sun Sentinel (8/6/2011)

Las Vegas regularly finds itself atop various Top Ten lists, and for good reason. Hottest New
Year's Eve spots? Absolutely. Top airport approaches? But of course. Greatest late night bars?
You betcha. —Las Vegas Weekly (8/3/2011)

You bet and you betcha are an emphatic way of saying, "Yes, that is correct" or "it is certain."

Both are short versions of you can bet on it and its colloquial variations such as, you (can) bet
your life, you (can) bet your bottom dollar and you (can) bet your bippy. All the phrases
express certainty about something. They may answer a question, as in the Las Vegas Weekly
example.

Betcha is a spelling based on informal pronunciation, like wanna (want to) and gonna (going to).
Betcha was further popularized by Sarah Palin, the Republican politician, who used it frequently.

You bet as an expression of certainty has been traced to the 1800's; you betcha to the early 1900's.

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zero in on

Romney addressed a crowd of delegates and party officials and sought to zero in on his economic
message... —Bloomberg News (8/31/2012)

Smart Meters...are designed to help customers manage energy use and help ComEd zero in on
outages. —Chicago Tribune (8/31/2012)

"This discussion really zeroed in on the fact that Alabama...has had a long history of
discrimination." —Joe Johns, television news correspondent, talking about the U.S. Supreme Court
(2/27/2013)

Zero in on originally meant "aim a gun at a target" but now usually means, "focus attention on."

The use of zero in on began during the mid-1900's.

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Beware of Bad Advice

Some language references advertise that using idiomatic phrases will make you speak or write
better English. This book will help you understand the phrases. I do not urge you to use them.

Unless the speaker is very fluent, in many situations using these phrases will call attention to the
speaker's non-native English. (A skillful businessperson may do so deliberately, to create a
moment of humor during a meeting.)

Teachers of writing generally advise against using idiomatic phrases, many of which are clichés—
phrases used too frequently. They call attention to the writer's lack of originality or careful thought.

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About the Author

Peter Bengelsdorf is a former newspaper executive. He began this project in 2010, after 40 years
working for newspapers and three years teaching English to immigrants.