I’m in Calgary visiting my son. It’s 38C (100F) outside and it’s not 3pm yet. It wouldn’t have mattered if I stayed home in Northern Alberta since the heat wave is pretty much cooking the entire province to a crisp.
I’m not a summer person and I don’t function well in the heat. I would pick -40C (-40F) over +40C (+104F) any day of the year. I stumbled onto that quote yesterday: “I better get my act together…I couldn’t take hell’s heat”. I’m not sure I want to get my act together, but I don’t doubt this Canadian girl would never survive hell’s heat LOLOL
Since I have a few hours to kill until I must take granddoggie for a quick walk, I decided to browse the Internet for weather expressions and their meanings. Here’s what I found...
- If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen
Meaning: If you can't cope with or handle the pressure in a given situation, you should remove yourself from that situation
- To turn the heat on someone
Meaning: To pressure someone
- In the heat of the moment
Meaning: At a moment when one is overly angry, excited, or eager, without pausing to consider the consequences
- A breath of fresh air
Meaning: A relief in the form of a person or a situation
- A ray of sunshine
Meaning: Someone or something that brings happiness
- To be on cloud nine
Meaning: To be very happy
- To have your head in the clouds
Meaning: To not know what is going on around you
- To chase rainbows
Meaning: To pursue unrealistic goals
- When it rains, it pours
Meaning: When one thing goes wrong, some other things will also go wrong
- To take a rain check
Meaning: To decline an invitation that you may accept another time
- To rain cats and dogs
Meaning: To rain heavily
- To spit in the wind
Meaning: To waste time on something futile
- To steal someone’s thunder
Meaning: To upstage someone
- To feel under the weather
Meaning: To feel unwell or ill
- To weather a storm
Meaning: To survive a dangerous or difficult time
- A storm in a teacup
Meaning: Unnecessary anger or worry about an unimportant or trivial matter
- To knock someone cold
Meaning: To strike someone so hard that they lose consciousness.
- Revenge is a dish best served cold
Meaning: Revenge that takes place far in the future, after the offending party has forgotten how they wronged someone, is much more satisfying.
- To be snowed under
Meaning: To be extremely busy with work or things to do
- A snowbird
Meaning: Someone who leaves their home to stay in a warmer climate during the winter months.
- In the dead of winter
Meaning:
The coldest, darkest part of winter
I like winter and I’m French Canadian, so my favorite weather is actually a French expression: Faire un froid de canard. It means “to be bitterly cold”, but it literally translates to “to be a duck’s cold”.
When it’s really, really cold, we say “Il fait un froid de canard” (“It’s duck’s cold”). Why? Because the best duck hunting days are in the winter, when hunters have to keep still for long periods in freezing cold weather in order to allow their prey to get close enough to be shot. Thus, that bitter cold that seeps into the bones is known as un froid de canard.
Side note: I didn’t know the origin of the saying until I looked it up ten minutes ago, but my father loved saying it.
My brain is fried and I have a doggie to take outside, so that will be all for today.
Stay
cool and stay safe! Happy reading!
JS
For me neither heat or cold is to my liking. Keep writing
ReplyDeleteAfter living in warm countries for so long, I just can't take the cold. So, I'll take the Arizona heat over Canadian cold anytime. That's why I live in Phoenix AZ.
ReplyDelete