Saturday 11 February 2017

Animals in sayings-1

It is true that humans have made phrases which are used according to situations. But, in some phrases animals are used  which represent their characteristic behavior and some popular ones will be presented in this post.


Bull is used quite many times in phrases and popular ones are 'dragging the bull by horns' which means tackling the challenge by facing it upfront like 'he dragged the bull by horns by completing the stunt'. 'Telling a cock and bull story' means telling an unbelievable story like I have won a lottery.

Though not used quite often, possum has its own phrase i.e. 'playing possum' means 'pretending to be dead'. For instance,
'When the man climbed a tree, his friend played possum on the ground as they both had seen a large bear approaching from far towards them'. Remember the fable by Aesop in which two friends were crossing a forest and had seen a bear approaching towards them. One had to lie down to pretend as if he is dead.

True, in such a situation this phrase becomes applicable. It should be done when one sees any wild animal but it is useless to do if one sees a scavenger like hyena.

In many situations, we often want to get a large part of something be it a snack like burger,pizza or a money etc. then that part is called as 'king size'. As lion is referred to as the king of the beasts in all the stories or fables, another phrase is born which is getting 'a lion's share' which means a large part of something.
Cocodrilo2
When a person is accused of wrong doing or if he/she just wants to show themselves sad, then they only cry falsely. This cry is known as 'crocodile tears' means shedding false tears which arose by the crocodile's behavior of removing tears from their eyes by fooling us that they are sad. But, in reality it happens naturally to them as when warm air passes through them while feeding, tears roll down from their eyes as a result of air passing through their eyes.

Sometimes, we immediately rush into any situation thinking it is favorable for us. But, there is someone (another person or a leader if its a group) who tells wait please don't rush. In this case, hold your horses is applicable as if every person has a horse with him/her to ride through life which means to wait.

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