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The phrase “spill the beans” means to reveal information that was meant to be kept private. An example of it in a sentence is: “He spilled the beans about the surprise party.” “Spilling ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
The post Where Does the Phrase “Spill the Beans” Come From? appeared first on Reader's Digest. If you "spilled the beans," you revealed information that was meant to be kept private. But why a ...
Many fixed idioms lack semantic composition, meaning that the idiom contains the semantic role of a verb, but not of any object. This is true of kick the bucket, which means die. By contrast, the semantically composite idiom spill the beans, meaning reveal a secret, contains both a semantic verb and object, reveal and secret. Semantically ...
Abnormally decomposable idioms contain words that are associated with the overall figurative meaning of the idiom but in a metaphorical way, e.g. spill the beans. Spill mapping on to reveal and beans metaphorically representing secret. Nondecomposable idioms are made of words that do not reflect their idiomatic meaning, e.g. kick the bucket ...
The earliest record of this phrase is in 1512, in Narrenbeschwörung (Appeal to Fools) by Thomas Murner, which includes a woodcut illustration showing a woman tossing a baby out with waste water. It is a common catchphrase in German, with examples of its use in work by Martin Luther , Johannes Kepler , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Otto von ...
The adorably goofy neighbor who basically lived at the Stevens' family home, poking his nose into every sticky situation. ABC's "Even Stevens" - File. Now 25, Beans (aka Steven Anthony Lawrence ...
Don't get into trouble. Don't eat all the chocolate. Don't spill all the milk. Don't throw stones at the cow. Don't fall down the well." The boy had done all of these things on previous market days. Hoping to head off new trouble, she added, "And don't stuff beans up your nose!" This was a new idea for the boy, who promptly tried it out.