What keeps the idiom current is its imagery. Unlike more clinical alternatives – “disclose,” “reveal,” “divulge” – this one has texture. It moves. It scratches. It refuses containment. And perhaps that’s why it endures: because secrets, like cats, are never entirely obedient.
Schmooze has found its way into the English language along with other Yiddish phrases that add richness to expressions. Yiddish phrases are colourful and descript, hard to match in other languages.
A noose around the neck is an expression that means you are out of options. As the noose, a tightening rope knot moves closer to the throat, the subject is close to death, the deathknot, if you like.
Most people who use RSVP today don’t speak French, many not realising it’s French at all allowing it to blend into the language. The letters have effectively become a universal shorthand for, ‘Let us know if you’re coming.’
Writers are still told to do it “for the love of it,” as if affection for the craft can pay the electricity bill or justify the hours spent on rewrite after rewrite. Passion is powerful, but it has limits. When the industry begins to rely on passion as a substitute for fair compensation, the phrase “labour of love” stops sounding
Today, we use the idiom for any moment of irreversible action. You resign from a stable job to start your own business. You press “send” on an email that might change everything. You sign the contract, make the announcement, book the one-way ticket, say "I do". The die is cast.
Idiomatic use is everywhere, even in the lyrics of famous rock groups, especially Queen and the like. Many of the lyrics cite idioms, also noted is another one bites the dust. Blog discusses idiom usage.
An illustration of the correct usage of the idiom Champing at the bit. It provides history and commentary.
The phrase features in academic papers, policy memos and newspapers from the 1990s onward — usually as shorthand for a surveillance-first approach to community supervision. Probation and parole officers used it (sometimes ironically, sometimes proudly) to describe a mindset: monitor closely (“tail”), document non-compliance (“nail”), and respond with incarceration (“jail”)
Looking at the pic, you see yourself (okay, I speak for myself – baby boomers) deliriously swamped by magazines and print media and happy as a pig in sh-t. This…
