This saying means that we should transform bad situations into good ones. Lemons are famously sour in taste, and a sour taste symbolizes emotional pain, while sweetness symbolizes good feelings. So, the phrase when life gives you lemons . . . means when life causes you emotional pain . . . Lemonade, on the other hand, although […]

To play it by ear means to improvise, to make it up as you go along, to act without planning. The phrase originally meant playing a piece of music (“it”) without sheet music (notation), but rather only by listening to the music and playing intuitively. The word ear can always stand for the ability to play […]

The phrase, jack of all trades, describes a particular kind of person. Jack is a very common name, originally a nickname (a diminutive in linguistics) for John. Jack represents “the common man” and appears in many English phrases and names, such as jack-in-the-box and Jack Frost. A trade is a profession. So, a “Jack of all trades” […]

To run the gauntlet means to go through a frightening, difficult, or dangerous series of challenges or confrontations. This modern meaning is a metaphor, based on an old military tradition, in which a soldier runs between two lines of men who beat him with sticks or ropes (for example). This could be a form of punishment […]

A train of thought refers to a sequence of connected thoughts, whether happening naturally in one’s mind, or in an argument or presentation:         When the phone rang, it interrupted my train of thought.         I cannot follow the train of thought in this article; it makes no sense.         What train of thought leads to this conclusion? Surprisingly, this phrase […]