Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Cliché: …I’ll eat my hat

Meaning: verify my certainty that a specified thing is true, often stated in "either-or" or "if-then" terms. Meaning and examples.
Rewrite 1: …I’ll eat my shoes
Rewrite 2: …I’ll eat my dog (or cat or bird)
Rewrite 3: …I’ll lock up and leave town
Rewrite 4: …I’ll date the devil

Comment: In these rewrites I’ve tried to emphasize the silly or sensational to suggest being wrong is so unlikely that I’m willing to do something really absurd if it turns out I am wrong. Doesn’t that sound like a few people you know?

More reading about clichés
What I found when I
googled “clichés”:
No partner, and other clichés: “Israel’s never had a peace partner because it refuses to be a peace partner.”

Note: By providing links to other websites I am only showing you what is out there about clichés – I am not endorsing any content or opinion expressed there.

Check out the new alphabetical list of all my cliché rewrites available in the archive list at the right. To search the page using Internet Explorer, just go to “Edit” in the top menu bar, select “Find”, then enter the cliché or a word from it.

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