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| 15019763092 | Achilles' Heel | a person's area of particular vulnerability This term is from Greek Mythology. According to myth, when Achilles was a baby, his mother dipped him in the River Styx because the waters from this river gave immortality to humans. His mother held him by his heel, so that was the only place on his body not touched by the water. From then on, Achilles' heel was his one area of vulnerability. Eventually, Achilles was killed during the Trojan War when a poisoned arrow struck his heel. Today, the term has come to refer to a person's area of particular vulnerability. | 0 | |
| 15019763093 | Sacred Cow | something that cannot be interfered with or harmed in any way In Hinduism, cows are considered to be sacred; thus, cows are not to be harmed, and certainly not killed for food. If a cow wanders into a shop, the merchant can only try to lure it out with food; he is not allowed to interfere with it by prodding or poking, even if it is breaking everything in his shop. | 1 | |
| 15019763094 | Crocodile Tears | to show false sympathy for someone Crocodiles were once thought to shed large tears before devouring their prey. This belief, which dates back to ancient times, comes from the fact that crocodiles have small ducts in the corner of their eyes which release "tears" when the crocodile opens its jaws wide. Obviously, a cold-blooded reptile has no feelings of real sympathy for its prey. | 2 | |
| 15019763095 | Read the Riot Act | to issue a stern warning that if unacceptable behavior does not cease, severe consequences will follow Under English Common Law, an unruly crowd had to be read the Riot Act before action could be taken to force them to disperse. | 3 | |
| 15019763096 | Gordian Knot/Cutting the Gordian Knot | extremely complex problem; solving such a problem in a quick, decisive manner According to legend, Gordius was a Greek king. He tied an extremely complex knot, and an oracle prophesied that whoever untied the knot would rule all of Asia. Alexander the Great "untied" the knot simply by cutting through it with his sword. | 4 | |
| 15019763097 | Ivory Tower | A person who is secluded or protected from the real world and thus out of touch with reality. A French poet, Alfred de Vigny, was said to have shut himself in an ivory tower so that he could compose his poems. Furthermore, "ivory towers" are mentioned in various 18th century fairy tales. The term thus refers to a beautiful, unreachable place. It has come to have negative connotations of being out of touch with reality. | 5 | |
| 15019763098 | Sound and Fury | a great, tumultuous, and passionate uproar that actually is unimportant or meaningless In Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macbeth is informed that his wife has died, he speaks of the inevitability of death: Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. | 6 | |
| 15019763099 | Pound of Flesh | insistence on being repaid, even if the repayment will destroy or harm the debtor This phrase comes from Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice. In this play, Shylock, a moneylender, agrees to finance a fleet of ships for a young merchant, Antonio. In the contract, Shylock demands a pound of Antonio's flesh as payment should anything happen to the ships. When the ships are lost at sea, Shylock insists that he must have a pound of flesh, as the contract demanded. Antonio is spared only because of a technicality: the contract did not say Shylock was entitled to any of Antonio's blood. Thus, he cannot take a pound of Antonio's flesh unless he can do so bloodlessly, an impossibility. | 7 | |
| 15019763100 | Crossing the Rubicon | to take an irreversible step, often involving some danger After defeating the Gauls in the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar was ordered home by his enemies in the Senate, so he traveled south toward Italy. The Rubicon was the river forming the northern boundary of Italy. By Roman law, a general was forbidden from crossing into Italy with an army. Nevertheless, Caesar led his army across the river, making civil war inevitable. After Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the was no turning back for him and his troops. | 8 | |
| 15019763101 | Pearls Before Swine | to offer something precious to someone, or a group of people, unable to appreciate the value of what they are being given In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus admonished his followers to "cast not your pearls before swine." That is, his followers were to deliver their message to those who would appreciate it, not to those incapable of appreciating something of value. Swine, or pigs, would be unable to appreciate pearls if the jewels were given to them. | 9 | |
| 15019763102 | Once in a Blue Moon | very rarely A "blue moon" is a second full moon within the same calendar month, a phenomenon that occurs approximately every three years. It is thought that calendar makers traditionally pictured the first full moon in red and a second full moon in the same month in blue. | 10 | |
| 15019763103 | Mrs. Grundy | attitude of narrow-minded prudishness In Speed the Plough, a 1798 play by Thomas Morton, Mrs. Grundy is a character who never appears on stage. However, other characters frequently ask, "What would Mrs. Grundy say?" Mrs. Grundy is a narrow-minded, conventional, prudish person. | 11 | |
| 15019763104 | Sirens | anything that tempts a person away from safety and toward a destructive path In Greek mythology, Sirens were sea creatures who lured sailors to their deaths on the rocky shores by singing a beautiful, irresistible song. They are usually depicted as half woman, half bird. | 12 | |
| 15019763105 | Thirty Pieces of Silver/Betrayed with a Kiss | Refers to payment received for an act of treachery and a supposed friend's treachery. In the Bible, Judas Iscariot was the disciple who agreed to betray Jesus to the authorities in exchange for payment. The thirty pieces of silver were the price of Judas' betrayal. The way Judas identified Jesus for the authorities was to approach Jesus and greet him with a kiss of idenfication. | 13 | |
| 15019763106 | All that Glitters is not Gold | appearances can be deceptive This is a proverb derived from a Latin translation of Aristotle. The proverb read, "Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold." In other words, just because something looks like gold, one should not assume that it actually is gold. | 14 | |
| 15019763107 | Achilles' heel | Greek | 15 | |
| 15019763108 | Sacred cow | Hindu | 16 | |
| 15019763109 | Read the Riot Act | Old English | 17 | |
| 15019763110 | Gordon knot | Greek | 18 | |
| 15019765986 | Ivory Tower | French | 19 |
