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A " curate's egg " is something described as partly bad and partly good. In its original usage, it referred to something that is obviously and entirely bad, but is described out of politeness as nonetheless having good features that redeem it. [1][2] This meaning has been largely supplanted by its less ironic modern usage, which refers to ...
The proverb literally means "you cannot simultaneously retain possession of a cake and eat it, too". Once the cake is eaten, it is gone. It can be used to say that one cannot have two incompatible things, or that one should not try to have more than is reasonable. The proverb's meaning is similar to the phrases "you can't have it both ways" and ...
All hands on deck/to the pump. All is grist that comes to the mill [a] All roads lead to Rome [a] [b] All that glitters/glistens is not gold [a] [b] All the world loves a lover [a] All things come to those who wait [a] All things must pass [a] All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy [a] [b] All you need is love.
Good is a broad concept often associated with life, charity, continuity, happiness, love, or justice. Evil is often associated with conscious and deliberate wrongdoing, discrimination designed to harm others, humiliation of people designed to diminish their psychological needs and dignity, destructiveness, and acts of unnecessary or ...
Hobson's choice. A Hobson's choice is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that multiple choices are available. The best known Hobson's choice is "I'll give you a choice: take it or leave it", wherein "leaving it" is strongly undesirable. The phrase is said to have originated ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
Ms. Lauryn Hill used the phrase "See the road to hell is paved with good intentions" in her 2002 song "Mr. Intentional" from her album MTV Unplugged No. 2.0. Pink used the phrase in her 2006 song "Dear Mr. President" to refer to the No Child Left Behind Act. Madonna uses this line in her 2008 single " 4 Minutes," featuring Justin Timberlake and ...
Birds of a feather flock together is an English proverb. The meaning is that beings (typically humans) of similar type, interest, personality, character, or other distinctive attribute tend to mutually associate. The idiom is sometimes spoken or written as an anapodoton, where only the first part ("Birds of a feather") is given and the second ...