idioms - Why is "pull my finger" a joke? - English Language
网页It's a childish joke. Kid1 asks kid2 to pull their finger. When they do kid1 farts - as if pulling the finger, like pulling a lever, had caused the fart to be released. It's an Americanism, or at least I never heard it in BE growing up. Earliest reference I can find is "The Street" (1969) by Canadian author Mordecai Richler:
Origin of the expression "pull your finger out"
网页2014年7月25日 — Pull your finger out: When you tell someone to pull your finger out, you are telling them to hurry up or to complete a task quicker. This term derives from when artillerymen would push gunpowder into the ignition chamber of their guns with their fingers and hold the powder in place by keeping their finger in the hole of the ignition chamber
meaning - BrEng: "pull your finger out", "cock up" and "stuff it" …
网页2014年9月8日 — It's my arse on the line, so you better pull your finger out. Pulling one's finger out (of their behind) means to get into action, to stop sitting around doing nothing useful. The combination with the speaker's arse being the one that is on the line implies that the addressee wasn't having his finger up his own posterior, but that of his boss.
Why does someone "pull my leg"? - English Language & Usage …
网页Pulling my leg or, 'your leg', originates from the public executions (hangings) in England, many of which took place in Tyburn, London. Death from hanging could take up to an excruciating 30 minutes and, if one was lucky, family and/or friends would pull on your leg to speed up the execution. Share. Improve this answer.
idioms - Is the phrase "I just sucked it out of my thumb" used in ...
网页2013年5月26日 — In Russian "sucking something out of one's finger" means arguing with very little (miniscule) proof; but proof nonetheless. Whereas most English examples brought here, "Talking through one's hat", "pulling something out of thin air", etc implies either ignorance or absence of proof whatsoever.
etymology - Origin of "pull your socks up"? - English Language
网页I think "give one socks" and "pull up your socks" likely have totally different origins. "Sock" is a verb meaning hit or punch, like "I socked him in the face." Thus "sock" as a noun can mean a punch: "I gave him a good sock in the face." I doubt this as any etymological connection with footwear.
meaning - What's the origin of "flipping the bird"? - English …
网页2012年4月19日 — The earliest use in print I found of the exact phrase "flip the bird" or "flipped the bird" or "flipping the bird" is from a 1967 Broadside (Volume 6, Issues 17-26). (The Grateful Dead flipped "the bird" to the audience, tuned their instruments, blew up amps — for what seemed like FOREVER —then disappeared, leaving people disappointed and ...
What term describes vocalizing while flapping the lips with one's …
网页2022年8月31日 — In the English-speaking world, and probably also in many other cultures, you can signal imbecility or infancy (on the part of the first, second, or a third person) by keeping your mouth closed, or nearly so, and then vocalizing while flicking your finger up and down over your protruding lips.
What does the expression “rabbit-out-of-a-hat” mean?
网页It's an analogy to a popular magic trick. The magician shows the audience an empty top hat. They then place the hat upside-down on a table and pull a live rabbit out of it. The implication of "rabbit-out-of-a-hat" is that the person has unexpectedly produced a desired result, with no indication of how they achieved it.
etymology - Why can a bird be pulled but never caught? - English ...
网页In the UK there is a popular idiomatic saying: To pull a bird. "Bird" is a well known Brit expression for a young woman. In the USA, I think "chick" is more popular. The above expression means to have success in fixing a date or going to bed with an attractive woman. I'd like to know why the verb, "pull" was preferred and not catch, get, take ...