Sayings that get muddled

All that’s glistens is not gold . Should be glisters

When I went to work in North London I heard the expression “black as Newgate’s knocker”.

Bit wimpy spitting feathers if you are angry.

I thought it meant being totally beside yourself with rage almost to the point of spluttering incoherently.

Maybe I've got it all wrong - I don't know where I first heard or saw it.

Mortified - I always took to mean a combination of embarrassed and horrified, but so often I see it used where the person is horrified only.

I agree farnorth. It means embarrassed, ashamed and horrified (At being found out?)

Spitting feathers means angry in the Black Country/Staffordshire.
And he`s/she is in her oil tot.
Which means they are doing something they really enjoy and are in their element.
I love daft sayings and the meaning behind them.

There was an area I used to live in where moggies were mice. I always thought it referred to cats?

Some one I know informed me that she had been made ‘ an escaped goat’.

Haha Ginny!!

That Allsopp woman says "the proof is in the pudding! You would think she would know better!

Ginny a friend of mine is renowned for word mangling. She told me the follwing, all in deadly earnest:

She's become a social leopard

That house had such Panasonic views

My spare glasses make me look like Dave haemorrhage

When we were in Egypt, we were told that a certain fish was so poisonous, that if you even touched its utensils you could die

I wouldn't mess around, because I believe in mahogany

I enjoyed that film with Goldie Woopsberg

And I once heard her on the phone to a client say"Hello Mr Jones, you don't know me, but I would like to get familiar with you"

Jane10 I'm rather find of mixed metaphors too, and will sometimes deliberately use them, for example "Does the Pope sh*t in the woods?"

My sister insists on passing the book

Love those Phoenix.

Well, there you go - I had never heard of spitting feathers meaning being thirsty and had always thought it meant being furious! You have described it well, FarNorth. My father used "spitting tacks" for being furious, and I rather like that one.

There's one which has come up on MN before, and possibly here too. As I know it, it goes "If she thinks that, she's got another think coming", but there are those who would say that "she has another thing coming", which doesn't make sense to me.

When, a primary teacher used to tell my class we had another think coming.

A friend's mum used to refer to a milestone round her neck .
We were at a function when someone was retiring and the speaker said that this chap always had his finger on the ball .

Perhaps people are mixing up their metaphors to make them more relevant to their thinking.

A student on the news revered to her generational as ' staked goats' rather than 'scape goats'. May make sense in the light of necessary restrictions.