I think I might know a few more of them but I'll let someone else take a guess.
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I think I might know a few more of them but I'll let someone else take a guess.
Raining cats and dogs has something to do with the thatch roofs where animals would hide and when it rained they'd be washed off the roof. Or something like that 8-[
Prize for the pretty lady with a tequila drink in her hand! Correct, animals lived in the thatched roofs, both wanted and unwanted.Mice and other rodents primarily and then the family pets would migrate up there.If it rained too hard the animals would literally fall from the roof :dance:
I'm not going to "let the cat out of the bag".:nana:
Nope
pig n a poke...hmmm?
:shakehead:
Quote:
Read the riot act
Meaning
Reprimand rowdy characters and warn them to stop behaving badly.
Origin
Since the early 19th century we have used 'read the riot act' as a figurative phrase to describe attempts to calm groups of rowdies - along the same lines as 'you noisy louts, don't you know there are people here trying to sleep?'. It wasn't always so. Had we been 'reading the riot act' in 1715 we would have noticed capital letters. At that date there was a real Riot Act and it used to be read in public.
In English law the control of unruly citizens has usually been the responsibility of local magistrates. Any group of twelve or more that the authorities didn't like the look of could be deemed a 'riotous and tumultuous assembly' and arrested if they didn't disperse within an hour of the Riot Act being read to them by a magistrate. This seems a little harsh, but in 18th century England the government was fearful of Jacobite mobs who threatened to rise up and overthrow the Hanoverian George I. The fear was well-founded, as supporters of the deposed Stuarts did actually invade in 1715 and again in 1745. The 'Riot Act' was passed by the British government in 1714 and came into force in 1715. The Riot Act, which was more formally called 'An act for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies, and for the more speedy and effectual punishing the rioters' actually contained this warning:
"Our sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King."
read the riot actThe punishments for ignoring the Act were severe - penal servitude for not less than three years, or imprisonment with hard labour for up to two years.
After the Hanoverians were established in power the Riot Act began to fade into disuse. It was read to a group of demonstrating mill workers at Manchester Town Hall in 1842, but was used with decreasing frequency and had become a rarity by the 20th century. Surprisingly, the Act remained on the UK statute books into modern times and wasn't formally repealed until 1973. It was eventually superseded by the 1986 Public Order Act.
The first record of the figurative use of the phrase is in William Bradford's Letters, December 1819:
"She has just run out to read the riot act in the Nursery."
timely considering what's happening in the UK :thumbsup:
intrestink tidbit - "Surprisingly, the Act remained on the UK statute books into modern times and wasn't formally repealed until 1973. It was eventually superseded by the 1986 Public Order Act."
Throw the baby out with the bath water - when it was bath time - it was always the father and mother that washed first then the oldest kids and usually the smallest kids/babies last. By that time the water was so dirty that you could throw the baby out with the dirty bath water.... or something like that
holding a wake
saved by the bell
dead ringer
Are these three related? I think they all have a similar answer.