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- Burning the Midnight Oil From Both Ends. “I’m so stressed that I’m burning the midnight oil from both ends.” This is a mixup of the two idioms, “burning the midnight oil” and “burning the candle at both ends.”
- Heavy Is the Goose That Lays the Golden Egg. “George just got promoted to management, I hope he’s ready for it. Heavy is the goose that lays the golden egg.”
- Walking a Thin Line. “That decision seems a little risky! He’s walking a thin line.” This malaphor is a combination of “walking on thin ice” and “walking a fine line.”
- I Can Read Him Like the Back of My Book. “He couldn’t hide anything from me. I can read him like the back of my book!” This malaphor mixes up two very common idioms: “know him like the back of my hand” and “read him like a book.”
An excellent source of mixed metaphors is the 6-part sketches 'Peter and John' on the British TV program 'A Bit of Fry and Laurie'. The two hard-drinking Fitness club owners do a lot of damage to standard English idioms. Example: Fry:'The boardroom and the bedroom are just two sides of the same agenda' –
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- Metaphors and Malaphors
- Examples from Richard Lederer
The following are some examples of malaphors. 1. Blends at the phrase level: "You hit the nail right on the nose." (A combination of "You hit the nail right on the head" and "That’s right on the nose.”) "She really stuck her neck out on a limb." ("Stuck her neck out" and "went out on a limb") . . . "I can’t make these split-minute decisions." (spli...
Below, find some malaphors that areclose, mixed-up cousins of mixed metaphors. 1. "Malaphors aren't quite malapropisms and aren't quite mixed metaphors but the best are as memorable as either. Whatever you want to call these, I hope you'll agree: each one is a pearl worth its weight in gold. - I can read him like the back of my book. - The sacred c...
Have fun with these "accidental assaults" on the English language according to Richard Lederer. 1. It's time to swallow the bullet. It's as easy as falling off a piece of cake. Let dead dogs sleep. That guy's out to butter his own nest. He's between a rock and the deep blue sea. (Richard Lederer, Anguished English: An Anthology of Accidental Assaul...
- Richard Nordquist
May 7, 2021 · The Origin of the Malaphor. Author Lawrence Harrison gave us the word malaphor in a Washington Post article in 1976. He blended two words, “ malapropism ” and “metaphor.”. Malapropism is the misuse of a word. So we had the amusing instance of Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott intending, we assume, to use the word “repository ...
May 20, 2022 · A malaphor is a mixed metaphor that got lost in translation somewhere. What does this look like? Discover some of the more common malaphors here.
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Nov 10, 2023 · One of the easiest ways to get words mixed up is to think of one word while trying to say another. This is how blends end up happening. These mistakes happen regularly in all languages and are usually easy to notice. One famous example in pop culture is from the 2004 film Mean Girls, where the main character Cady gets nervous and accidentally ...
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The phrase “mix up” has been a part of the English language for centuries, and it is used to describe a situation where things become confused or jumbled. The origins of this idiom are not entirely clear, but it likely developed from the idea of mixing ingredients together in cooking or blending different substances.
