Sep 13, 2016 · The only thing to be gained by adding red to "a cent" (or thin to "a dime") is emphasis on the following noun. On the other hand, since 1837 was the year that U.S. pennies went from pure copper to 95% copper (as detailed in a link in Laurel's answer), perhaps "red penny" is a reference to the older, slightly purer (but no more valuable) type of ...

Nov 18, 2020 · I grew up hearing phrases like, "X can stop on a dime," meaning that X, presumably at the controls of some kind of vehicle, can bring that vehicle to a stop in as short a distance as the diameter of a U.S.A. 10 cent piece (a dime, a very small coin little more than a centimeter in diameter). When and where does this phrase come from?

Oct 20, 2015 · To dance on a dime was to grind bodies tightly together in clothed but sexual contact, without moving from that spot; taxi dancers working for a dime (immortalized in the 1930 Lorenz Hart lyric "Ten Cents a Dance") were exhorted by their bosses to keep the customers moving. Thus, to get off the dime came to mean "to get moving." (ytlcommunity.com)

May 18, 2017 · The expression originates from the Greek mythology where King Theseus found his way out of the Minotaur's labyrinth by following a "red thread". It could also be derived from that formerly a red thread were found twisted in some cordage belonging to the English Navy. In a figurative sense first used by Goethe in his work Wahlverwandschaften.

Aug 20, 2014 · Also consider old bromides and old platitudes as terms for often-repeated phrases or stories.. From wiktionary, bromide means “A platitude [eg] We hoped the speech would include reassurances, but instead it was merely one bromide after another”.

May 1, 2011 · The original German title of the fairy tale, "Rotkaeppchen", has no connotations with riding gear. This only got in when it was translated into English. The literal translation of the fairy tale title would be "Little red hat" (or cap).

May 27, 2013 · FumbleFingers's answer explains the literal meaning of "cut [one's] teeth on [something]," from which the idiomatic use of the term arises.

May 27, 2011 · Tomatoes, hereafter called "Toms", are red. This is false, as some Toms are green. I like Toms. But this is not recommended in academic writing. You could simply use in this paper and explain what you're going to do: Tomatoes, which will be referred to as "Toms" in this paper, are red. This is false, as some Toms are green. I like Toms.

Meanwhile the American English corpus shows the occurrences of on the summer vacation (red line) as being exceptionally rare, compared with in the summer vacation (blue line) and in the summer holidays (green line). For more detail see "On/at/for/over the weekend" in American English "On the weekend" or "during the weekend"

This is for a professional blog post, so I'd rather stay away from "red-headed step-child". I can't use "second-class citizen" because I'm talking about a topic with very few similar posts and one related post uses that same term.