CRY WOLF

To cry wolf is to call for help when it’s not required, which can result in not being believed when help is subsequently needed.

 This idiom refers to the fable of the boy who cried wolf, taken from Aesop’s Fables:

 “A Shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out, ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ and when his neighbours came to help him, laughed at them for their pains. The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy, now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror : ‘Pray, do come and help me ! the Wolf is killing the sheep !’ but no one paid any heed. to his cries, nor rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause of fear, took it easily, and lacerated or destroyed the whole flock. There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.”

(Click on the link above to obtain a free copy of this book.)


Examples of use:

“‘In the context of the summer of 2018, this is definitely not a case of crying wolf, raising a false alarm: the wolves are now in sight,’ said Phil Williamson, climate researcher at the University of East Anglia.”

“But pro-Brexit campaigners accuse him of ‘crying wolf’ before the 2016 referendum, when he predicted voting to leave the EU could trigger a recession.”

“The following year she told officers not to ‘cry wolf’ over cuts to the police force.”


 The song “Cry Wolf” featured in the album “Scoundrel Days” (1986) by Norwegian band A-ha.

Photo credit: Orest Ukrainsky

HIGH AND LOW

If you hunt or search high and low for something, you look everywhere.

 Examples of use:

 “The dog owner launched a desperate Facebook appeal, offered a £400 reward and hunted high and low in search of her much-loved pet.”

 “You would have to search high and low to find a prettier market square than the one in Donegal town.”

 “Hunting High and Low” was the first album by Norwegian rock trio A-ha, which includes this title track:

Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall

TRAIN OF THOUGHT

A train of thought is a connected series of thoughts. This use of the word “train” apparently predates its use with railways [1].

 The song “Train of Thought” by Norwegian rock trio A-ha was a UK Top 10 hit in 1985 [2].

 e.g. “For the last three days, the only thing to interrupt my train of thought was a particularly noisy monkey.”

[1] Cresswell, Julia. “train” In The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. Oxford University Press, 2009.
[2] “A-Ha” In Encyclopedia of Popular Music, edited by Larkin, Colin. Oxford University Press, 2006. 

Photo credit: Charlie Jackson

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

The phrase “the living daylights” is about extremes. For example, if someone scares the living daylights out of you, they make you extremely scared.

 e.g. “When I ask them what their biggest fear is, they often say they don't like clowns – the adults who scare the living daylights out of people in a nasty way.”

Other examples are:

“Every single game I am on his case that I think he goes in too soft-hearted and today I said to him I would slap the living daylights out of him if I don’t see that aggression and desire.” (A severe, hopefully figurative, slapping is threatened here.)

“Poorly mixing nostalgia and newfangled ‘it's all connected!’ franchise world-building, the stitched-together Spectre will bore the living daylights out of you while threatening to render James Bond a culturally irrelevant relic of the past.” (This review claims that Spectre is an extremely boring film.)

The Living Daylights is also the title of a song by Norwegian band A-ha (one of several of their idiomatic song titles – see THE SWING OF THINGS), which was commissioned in 1987 for the James Bond film with the same title [1].

The phrase appears to originate from the use of  “daylight” or “daylights” as a metaphor for eyes, and by extension any vital organ of the body, since the mid 18th century [2].

[1] “A-Ha” In Encyclopedia of Popular Music, edited by Larkin, Colin, Oxford University Press, 2006.
[2] “daylight” In Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms, edited by Ayto, John, Oxford University Press, 2009. 

THE SWING OF THINGS

This is the title of a song by Norwegian band A-ha (1986, from the album “Scoundrel Days”), but what does it mean?

 The expression dates from the 1800s and means to become active or make progress [1].

 e.g. “It appears the Duchess of Sussex is now fully into the swing of things in her royal working life, recently attending a poignant service at Westminster Abbey to mark the Centenary of the Royal Air Force.”

We also talk about getting “back into the swing of things” after a break from our usual routine.

 e.g. “There is often this loss of professional self-confidence, so it just takes you a while to get back into the swing of things.”

The origin of this phrase is unclear.

[1] “get into the swing of things.” in The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, by Christine Ammer. 2nd ed. Houghton Mifflin, 2013.