Will someone please explain to me what ,,,"And it's Katie bar the door...." means? I never heard it until about a decade ago. Now, I hear it all the time. I sounds as if its origin was Irish.

It means there's trouble coming. In other words, block the doorway from intruders.

But we've never known who Katie is!

I think she's related to " ......and Bob's your uncle ! "

I like that expression.

I like Bob’s your uncle, too! 😊 A couple of phrases I thought of…naked as a jaybird, raining cats & dogs. In my part of the south a hard rain is a frog-strangler.

Donna

Msmeow, shouldn't that be nekkid as a jaybird? We're not very sophisticated here.

Yes, Carolyn! ”Nekkid” is the correct pronunciation down here!

" keep your shirt on ..."

"run it up the flagpole and see who salutes "

I'd venture that most over-forty Americans have heard of "a shoestring budget." But recently I thought I heard a couple of my under-forty nephews referring to a chew string budget instead. I decided I had misheard them until I saw in writing "chew string" spelled exactly that way. Is a 'chew string' some sort of cheap newfangled snack that I've never run across before? I never seem to know these days!

Seeing "nekkid" made me think of other expressions for that state, like birthday suit, sky-clad, in the nuddie etc.

Friedag........an eggcorn !

"God Save Ireland" was an expression my father would come out with. I don't think he was hoping the Lord would provide succor for that country but said usually in a tone of exasperation when he dropped something or if the dog wouldn't get out of/into the car.

Annpan re naked . . . we still say 'in the buff' or 'starkers' . . . 'all-together' ( think of the Danny Kay song "The King is in the . .. ")

In the same vein...." Lord love a duck ! "

"It's enough to drive a saint berserk!"

Yoyobon, my niece informed me that a "chew string budget" is a real saying among her contemporaries. A chew string budget is more dire than a shoestring budget -- the latter is only mild straits while a person on a chew string budget is in worse shape. I think you're right, though, that the newer saying probably started as an eggcorn.

My DIL ( bless her heart ) says " To thy known self be true. " and that is the way she apparently hears it ! I bite my tongue .

Actually, that makes sense!

ann.......thus making it a perfect eggcorn !

Here's another expression ......." shake a leg " ( hurry up )

My late English friend taught me one from the UK: "Done up like a dog's dinner."

Here's one from the days of WW II: "As full of ***** as a Christmas turkey."

" get down to brass tacks" .....

Colleen rather like the English expression "Fur coat but no knickers" ie all outward show.

Woodnymph, I'm still trying to figure out what "Done up like a dog's dinner" means. My dogs' dinners are always a mess (the content and the way they eat), so I first assumed.it must be something to clean up and discard. However, I learned from my English friends that they love irony. Therefore, it could be just the opposite! Which way did your friend mean it?

I've never understood "putting on the dog" either, which I believe is an American expression. I know it means ostentatious display. But why?

Frieda, "done up like a dog's dinner" is not a compliment and just means over-dressed/covered in 'bling', wearing multiple layers/colours that don't match or a combination of the above! And usually said about older females. Younger ones might just be described as looking 'tarty'.

Friedag, it is interesting that you mention the English sense of irony and it made me wonder why it is a particularly English trait! Are we born with it or does it come with our culture. Do other nations have it? Is ours more subtle?

I know that you love to look into the background of language, so what do you think?

I think that sarcasm ( i.e. irony ) is the birthright of most Americans.

Annpan, I confess that I didn't pay close enough attention in psycholinguistics classes to form a persuasive opinion about the nature vs. nurture debate, regarding communication preferences. About all I can recall is many theorists claim the evidence points to about 20% nature and 80% nurture. Thus, according to those lights, culture has the greater influence. In effect, the appreciation of, say, irony is probably acquired, not inborn. Makes sense to me - Ha! I've noticed that when people, including myself, move from one culture to another, how quickly much of the new culture rubs off onto the migrant but the 'home' culture is only partially replaced. It's an addition exercise, mostly, rather than one of mostly subtraction. You know all about that, I'm sure!

It's a fascinating topic -- the development of cultural 'traits'. Stereotyping gets a bad rap nowadays -- and many times it deserves it -- but I think there are legitimate reasons, too, to observe some of the stand-out features, such as the English cultural love of the unexpected sensation in literature and arts. Do people want to deny this 'typically' English characteristic? Wow, I hope not!

Here is another example of the use of dog-related expressions, thanks to my N. Yorkshire friend:

Everything she cooks and serves is "a dog's dinner".

Vee, do you hear that one in your neck of the woods? Or is it more common in the north of England?

I don't think I've heard it in the U.S. but it is easier for me to comprehend readily than is "done up like a dog's dinner" meaning peculiarly overdressed, in which I sense a shibboleth. Could that be true as well? :-)

And why so many aspersions cast on dogs?

Sounds more like an aspersion cast on what the British feed dogs !

I have heard the expression 'dog's dinner' meaning everything from the table chucked into the dog's bowl. Yoyo you are right, back in the day dogs were fed on 'left-overs'. Nothing came out of special doggy food cans/pouches etc nor did anyone provide them with salmon, steak, chicken . . . these were luxuries not even available to humans when I was growing up!

The same for cats. Those living in rural areas were often not 'fed' at all but survived by catching mice, rabbits and birds.

Some neighbours of ours kept rabbits, hamsters, gerbils etc. Despite having a flourishing vegetable garden they provided all their veggies from the supermarket at considerable cost. Their hens were occasionally given a bone to peck on with ALL the meat removed. They were worried that these pets might accidentally ingest grass until the vet asked what they thought these creatures did 'in the wild' and told them that butcher's hens laid the best eggs.

I feel I have strayed from the topic . . .

Here's one I don't hear too often : " ....can of corn ! " (pronounced "canna corn ")

referring to something that is easy peasy.

I hear can of worms meaning mass trouble.

I once upset a young girl I was babysitting along with my son when it was time to take them to preschool and I said 'get your skates on'.

She burst into tears and said 'I don't have any skates!!'

I was remembering last night how my mother used to tell me that I was “orneryer than cat dirt.” I knew what she meant but I’ve always wondered, why is cat dirt particularly ornery?

LOL Colleen! In a (maybe) related theme, when referring to strangers my mom would say "They don't know me from Adam's housecat."

Donna

One of my favorites regarding someone who is all talk........." He's all hat and no cattle.

Similarly, all hat and no cowboy boots.

Here an old expression for someone who is full of him/herself is ”more front than Mark Foy’s“. Mark Foy’s was the first really big department store in Sydney back in the day, and took up an entire city block, so effectively it was all front :-)

I'm reading The Glass Coffin by Gail Bowen and she used the expression "more s$&t than pony". LOL

My quip is probably wrong and should have been "All hat and no cowboy."

Over here we might say "All mouth and no trousers."

I've always liked "all around Robin Hood's barn' meaning a long, circuitous route. Or, "She was on that like a duck on a June bug." Or a guy trying to "tackle hell with a glass of water." And, of course, you don't want to buy "a pig in a poke." (Poke being an old term for a sack/bag.)

There are some good old Australian expressions that I feel are disappearing.

Flat out like a lizard drinking.

Kangaroo loose in the top paddock or a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.

We also have a range of individual words that are largely incomprehensible to the rest of the world, like drongo (a drongo is a person who is not smart).

^^^^ Shot through like a Bondi tram...

Referencing a race horse.....and a trampy-looking woman :

"Rode hard and put away wet."

Trite but still used: "There's nobody home." (meaning non compus mentis) .

Also, "he's not the brightest crayon in the box."

" a half a bubble off plumb "

I always liked "three bricks shy of a load" referring to someone who is not too bright.

It was also the title of a book about the Pittsburgh Steelers football team back in the 1970's shortly before they came to NFL dominance for much of the next decade. I'm not a sports fan, but anyone who lived in Pittsburgh absorbs these things by osmosis. I haven't lived there in decaces, and yes it does fade with the passage of time.

" pony up "..............pay your debt.

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.