To kill a fly with a. . . ? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Actually the idiom goes, "to break a (butter)fly on the wheel " The wheel in question being a torture device, for humans rather than flies From Wikipedia: The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the wheel, was a torture device used for capital punishment in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by bludgeoning to death The sledgehammer mentioned
Is it wrong to use sliding? [closed] - English Language Usage Stack . . . Sledding requires a sled (or as some responders have called it, a sledge I think "sledge" is British; I know Americans call it a sled ) I went sledding as a kid, in western Washington state What matters is not how deep the snow is, but how wet it is, and whether it is compacted or re-frozen so as to have a relatively hard surface Such compacted snow occurs often in wetter zones, whereas
Whats the etymology of the expression let it slide? To let something slide can be both pejorative and easy going The example of "Papa had let the business slide after Mama's death" could be construed as an example of sloth (therefore bad) or more likely as an example of grief taking over his life The example of letting the child sit at the table with his backpack on is of the easy-going type unless one believes in spare the rod and spoil the
How did When become the customary answer to say when? I can't answer how, but I can say when According to the OED: say when, colloq formula used by a person pouring out drink for another, to ask him to say when he shall stop; also ellipt , as a reply to this formula The question is at least from 1889 and the answer from at least 1911: 1889 John S Farmer Slang and its analogues past and present: ‘Say when,’ said Bonko, taking up a flagon
etymology - English Language Usage Stack Exchange The peasant who sets out for that purpose [to collect fuel] of a winter's morning from his house in the valley, begins by ascending some neighboring mountain, and having there made up the pieces he has cut into the form of a rude sledge, and secured them together properly on the brink of the declivity, he takes his station on the load, so that