Cliches - by Betty Kirkpatrick & E M Kirkpatrick (Paperback)

About the Book

An editor of "Roget's Thesaurus" has collected more than 1,500 of the world's favorite cliches, categorizing them according to origin and most common meaning.

Book Synopsis

Betty Kirkpatrick has complied and exhaustive dictionary--a must for writers, crossword puzzle buffs, and anyone who is intrigued by language.

Sample entries from Cliches

Let the cat out of the bag is an idiom cliche meaning to reveal a secret. In origin it refers allegedly to a fairground tick by which traders sold unwary buyers a cat in a bag, assuring them it was a pig. The buyers did not realize their mistake until they let the cat out of the back, by which time it was too late.

Bite the bullet is an idiom cliche meaning to steel oneself to accept something distressing. In origin it probably refers to the days before anesthesia, when soldiers wounded in battle were given a lead bullet to bite on to brace themselves against the pain of surgery.

Fly off the handle is an idiom cliche meaning to lose one's temper. Originally American, the expression has its origin in an ax or hammer, the handle of which becomes loosened and flies off after it has struck a blow.

From the Back Cover

Cliches: the bad guys of the English language, overused, abused, and sniffed at by school teachers? Or do they receive bad press? Are they actually an irreplaceable form of linguistic shorthand? Betty Kirkpatrick, an editor of Roget's Thesaurus, has exhaustively researched and compiled a list of our most common phrases, presented alphabetically. She provides the origin of each cliche, a humorous example of its use, and explores how a phrase becomes a cliche, when we use them, and why. This dictionary is a must for writers, crossword puzzle buffs, and anyone who is intrigued by language.

About the Author

Betty Kirkpatrick is a writer and lexicographer. Editor of both the Bloomsbury Thesaurus and Roget's Thesaurus, she was formerly editor of the Chambers Twentieth-Century Dictionary. She lives in Scotland.