The Dictionary of Cliches

by James T. Rogers

In a nutshell, here's a terrific A-TO-Z listing of the meanings and origins of over 2,000 common or particularly interesting cliches for everyone who delights in the pleasure of words.


"The best kind of reference book--one that amuses as it instructs. I fell for it hook, line, and sinker."--CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Writing, Language, Linguistics, Dictionaries

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an entertaining sort of book for pulling out at odd moments or when you need a topic to talk about, or for me when I need reminding about lurrrve, when I kidnapped a guy, and handsome men who forge Chippendale chairs and that I once had a life.

I was sitting around the swimming pool in a marina, not looking glamorous in a bikini and owl-eye shades, but wearing beat-up shorts and flip-flops, sailor's clothes, when I noticed this man looking at me. Not my type, not really, so I didn't respond. He got up to get a drink and when he came back he took the lounger next to mine, smiled and opened his book. This book. A few minutes later he said, "I could say do you come here often, but that would be a cliche," and on we went from there.

Grahame was a very nice man, a Canadian, he owned and captained a big dive boat trimaran that had a crew of six and chartered throughout the Caribbean. We went out for drinks a few times but nothing much else because I was mad for another man, Richard, who was equally mad for me but his wife was rather an obstacle, even after she'd left before we were even together. So we were just mad for each other and often at each other, and having drinks and long, soulful talks.

I heard that Richard was sailing away soon; he wanted to sell the classic wooden yacht he'd restored with the same techniques he used for forging the antique furniture he sold for huge amounts of money, and in desperation I decided to kidnap him. I got a seafront villa on a deserted beach where the sea is so wild few people go. I stocked the fridge with champagne, grapes and chocolates and a joint in case that was his poison, and put in my bag his favourite brand of cigarettes. At the bar I induced him to come to the car and was just going to drive it off when he said, "I'm not going ANYWHERE with you" and got out of the car and went back to the marina bar. So did I. I was furious and humiliated. Revenge would come publicly and instantly.

I radioed Grahame on his boat to come and meet me in the bar and a couple of minutes later there we were, arms linked, going to my car, 'something wrong with the handle that opens the bonnet' I said and he got in. And I drove off.

It was a night filled with the most passionate, vengeful sex. I was so angry, he was so crazy. Everything I did was to spite Richard, but Grahame was off in his own head, complaining of pain where others feel joy, telling me of the creepy thoughts of death he always had with sex.

Next morning I took him back to the marina in time for breakfast and Richard and I resumed our strange circling of each other. We always contrived to be in the same place day and night. Occasionally Grahame would persuade me to have a drink, but my interest, such as there was, had gone.

One day Grahame wasn't there anymore and a friend came over to tell me that he had bought the trimaran and Grahame had gone home to Canada, voluntarily going to a mental home, but that he'd left me a book. This one. A dictionary of cliches.

(What happened after that with Richard involved voodoo and curses and more rubbish like that, but I never heard from Grahame again).

This story was full of cliches Do you believe any of it?

Rewritten Apr 2019 It is all absolutely true.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book.
I am always looking at it to see if a phrase/chiche has another meaning or story behind it!

[Robby Hamlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's one you have to keep handy...life is just so full of these little "-isms"

[Drucilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference book. It's fun to see where our sayings come from. I really like that it gives you what the saying means and it's history, i.e. where it came from.

[Brian Garrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manual is the bee's knees... unfortunately it does not contain the history of that cliched phrase.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew "by and large" was derived from a nautical reference? Not I! At least until I read this tome of phrases we take for granted or never even ponder (unless you're like me).

[Steven Burgauer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as much fun as I had hoped.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun...

[Will Pender · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew Shakespeare coined many of the phrases we use today? We owe him so much. This is a fun book to look at if you're just teensiest bit curious as to why we say the things we say.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those fun books that you just can't put down. It is a collection of various cliches put together in a humorous way. Something fun for any reader.

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at the origins of many well known phrases.

[Dona]

The dictionary of cliches by James T. Rogers (1985)

[Tyler Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very boring, but it's a dictionary, so...

Quite useful, however.

[Dustin C.]

Good, but obviously incomplete.

[Robert Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never read so much Shakespeare, pre-19th century lit, the Bible, Charles E. Funk, and/or Daniel Defoe. This book was weird at first. I never thought of any of these as cliches. Just phrases, sayings, metaphors, proverbs. Some of the descriptions even say "This proverb was" or "This saying is" and whatever. I always thought a cliche was something like The Nerd Gets The Girl or The Brainy Girl Is Secretly Hot or The Bad Guy Is the Good Guys Father. But Google's definition says in part that a cliche is "a phrase or opinion that is overused."

[Donna Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my fault for not realizing that reading a book that has the word "dictionary" in the title would read like a . . . dictionary. Thus, it has some interesting information every now and then, but in general is not a good read; it is a dictionary.

[Carrie Billig]

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[Nancie Lafferty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat dated, but amusing.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book on cliches, and rather than just defining what one means, the author normally dedicates about a paragraph for the root explanation of how it came to be.

My only complaint is that I wish more were covered, and also, an updated version is needed as there is a lot of conflict online about the origins.

Here's an example of a cliche listed in the book:
Three Sheets to (in) the wind. Drunk. In a sailing vessel a "sheet" is a rope that controls a sail; if it is allowed to go slack it is said to be "in the wind," and as a result the sail is ineffective. If several sheets are in the wind, the ship goes erratically, like a drunkard. Pierce Egan offered the metaphorical meaning in Real Life in London (1821): "Old Wax and Bristle is about three sheets in the wind."

[Jbussen · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love me my bathroom readers. Unfortunately for every explanation of where 3 sheets to the wind came from, there are a dozen crummy obvious ones like Needle in a haystack, needless to say, Neither here nor there, rhyme or reason, Darken my door. Still, it is interesting if you just skip over the crummy ones.

[Stefanie Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Catherine Richmond]

One of my critique partners gave this book to everyone in the group last Christmas. I enjoyed reading it through, a few pages at a time. Interesting to learn the origins of common phrases - some have changed meanings over the years, others include words rarely heard nowadays. This book is heading for my writer's shelf as a reference.