In Return of the King, Aragorn says: "I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me." What precisely does he mean by this? My confusion is with the phrase "take the heart of me." Is this a standard idiom?
posted by Busoni on Jul 15, 2009 - 15 answers

Over the past year or two, I've noticed an increasing use of the phrase "thread the needle" in news stories and blog entries. The problem is, I don't know exactly what "thread the needle" means, and it appears in a variety of contexts that don't appear entirely consistent with each other. [more inside]
posted by Powerful Religious Baby on Jan 11, 2009 - 16 answers

What is the origin of the phrase "getting the hang" of something? What did it mean, originally, to "get the hang" of something?
posted by RedEmma on Oct 9, 2008 - 17 answers

In this blog post on Information Arbitrage the author uses the expression "giving them the Heisman". The meaning is pretty clear from the context but I've never come across the expression before. Can anyone shed any light on it? [more inside]
posted by patricio on Apr 6, 2008 - 13 answers

Given a word, how can I search for terms and idioms containing that word? [more inside]
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg on Feb 5, 2008 - 11 answers

What are some Spanish-language idioms or expressions for "Goodbye" (or similar) to put on a going-away cake? [more inside]
posted by sprocket87 on Aug 27, 2007 - 17 answers

"Writer's block," "swimmer's ear," and "athlete's foot" are all examples of occupation-specific conditions. Are there any others? [more inside]
posted by jenovus on May 23, 2006 - 60 answers

Is there a good online dictionary of idioms and phrases? I know there are online thesauri, but they don't have the colorful expressions from the original Roget's I.
posted by inksyndicate on Dec 16, 2004 - 6 answers

LanguageFilter: Any Arabic speakers here? I'm trying to decipher an Arabic phrase: "Baashake ya halo." I might have spelled it wrong, but I know it's not a common Arabic phrase so much as it is slang. Any ideas?
posted by symphonik on Dec 12, 2004 - 9 answers