By: Blonde Two
Have you ever noticed how many of our idioms include the word ‘walk’? A while ago now, I spent a happy afternoon sitting on Dartmoor and ‘collecting’ as many of these beauties as I could think of. Most of my idioms presented walking in a positive light although a few were negative, some I had never heard of. The English language is, I fear, a fickle tutor. Here are a few Blonde favourites, do feel free to add any that you think I may have forgotten.
Walking idioms with a positive theme
‘Walking on air.’ To walk wearing expensive cushioned walking boots.
‘Walking on sunshine.’ To walk wearing expensive cushioned walking boots that are far too hot in the summer.
‘Take a walk on the wild side.’ To avoid the leeward side of a hill or mountain and get blown off the windward side.
‘To walk the walk.’ To undertake a perambulation without running, skipping, hopping or hobbling.
‘Worship the ground he walks on.’ To love someone so much that you love his floors (but not his windows) enough to clean them.
‘Walk down memory lane.’ To take a wrong turning through excessive use of the phrase, ‘It’s this way, I recognise it from last time.’
Walking idioms with a negative theme
‘Walk the plank.’ To dive headlong into a simmering pit of sharks.
‘Take a long walk off a short pier.’ To dive headlong into the sand, thus avoiding the simmering pit of sharks but experiencing a bad concussion.
‘Run before you can walk.’ To fall head first in a Dartmoor bog because you have decided to go for the ‘speed rather than accuracy’ approach.
Walking idioms I had never heard of
‘Walk softly and carry a big stick.’ To approach a potential argument with a willingness to debate, but the ability to strike back.
‘Cock of the walk.’ You’ll have to look that one up yourself… I am far too embarrassed to do so!
I know a couple of walkaholics – will that do? Sorry for the feeble effort, but the rest of what I call my brain is still trying to fathom out what the sharks were doing getting into a pit, (and how did they intend to get out of it and back into the sea), how you managed to get said pit to hold boiling water, and why anyone would want to simmer a shark in the first place?
I know, you just can’t get the sharks these days!
You say idiom (A group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words – eg, over the moon, see the light ) rather than cliché. Might the former be a middle-class version of the latter? The sort of locution that takes The Daily Mail rather than The Sun, drives a 4WD, lives in a house with a garage but parks the transportation on the drive, secretly loves Barry Manilow, claims to be LibDem but actually votes Tory in the private hope that the Tories will bring back hanging, has seen Les Mis several times, etc, etc.
Some definitions are distinctly Blonde-ish and limited to a small percentage of the population. To walk on air means to be sustained by delight or, perhaps more frequently, by success, its origins being “to proceed frictionlessly”. Your definition would make the idiom more “deducible” and might disqualify it (see above).
Since you say you’ve never heard of Teddy Roosevelt’s definition of early twentieth-century American diplomacy I hesitate to say it’s “talk” not “walk”. Nah, I feel sure you knew; you’re educated whereas I am not. And that you’re adjusting the rules as you go along.
There is “Oh for a closer walk with God.” to which the rejoinder would surely be: “No thanks, I’m quite close enough.”
Might “march” be synonymous with “walk”. If true this would allow “Marching/walking to the beat of a different drummer.”
Never liked this one much, there’s more to music than rhythm.
Dead man walking? A bit near the bone.
Cheyne Walk is an address but no reason it shouldn’t be an idiom. Meaning: house prices out of this world
Excellent work Robbie. ‘Cliche’ seems like a step too far whereas ‘idiom’ fits my footprint.