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Word in Your Shell-Like: 6,000 Curious and Everyday Phrases Explained
 
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Word in Your Shell-Like: 6,000 Curious and Everyday Phrases Explained (Hardcover)

by Nigel Rees (Author)
2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Collins; First Edition edition (6 Sep 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 000715593X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007155934
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.8 x 6.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 212,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #31 in  Books > Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauri > Synonyms & Antonyms
    #70 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Historical & Comparative Linguistics > Etymology
    #97 in  Books > Reference > Language > Slang & Jargon

Product Description

Product Description
A complete guide to phrases in everyday life A Word in your Shell-Like will be the ideal replacement or complement to that tatty old copy of Brewer's most of us have about the house: a modern, entertaining guide to the wonderful world of phrases, familiar and unfamiliar, a landmark publication by one of the key world authorities in English language reference. It is an entirely phrase-based book, exploring well-known phrases -- catchphrases, slogans, idioms, cliches, nicknames, titles of books and films, and quotations. The articles will contain discussion of meaning, origin and usage. Sample entries include: 'but, miss -- you're beautiful without your glasses' 'I must go down to the seas again' 'small, but perfectly formed' 'sold down the river' 'abhors a vacuum' 'all dressed up and nowhere to go' 'and when did you last see your father?' 'Anglo-Saxon attitudes' 'another meal the Germans won't have' 'What did you do in the Great War, Daddy?' 'by Grand Central Station I sat down and wept' 'Burlington Bertie' Few other word reference books are likely to increase your store of knowledge with such fun: find out of whom it was said: 'he couldn't chew gum and fart at the same time', who the 'catcher in the rye' was, and what it means to be 'caught between wind and water'. in your shell?like (ear). Phrase used when asking to have a 'quiet word' with someone: '(Let me have a word) in your ear' is all it means, but it makes gentle fun of a poetic simile. Thomas Hood's Bianca's Dream (1827) has: 'Her small and shell-like ear'. The Complete Naff Guide (1983) has 'a word in your shell-like ear' among 'naff things schoolmasters say'.

From the Inside Flap
A modern, entertaining guide to the wonderful world of phrases, familiar and unfamiliar, by one of the world's best-known wordsmiths.

Unravel the meaning, origin and usage of over 6,000 phrases forom catchphrases, book and film titles, idioms, cliches, to nicknames, slogans and quotations.

Few other word reference books are likely to increase your store of knowledge with such fun.

See all Product Description


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Word in Your Shell-Like: 6,000 Curious and Everyday Phrases Explained
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Average Customer Review
2.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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1.0 out of 5 stars Move along .. nothing to see here., 10 Jul 2009
By DC (Horrible Hayes, Middx, UK) - See all my reviews
Yaaawn. I thought that this would be a really interesting exposition about the development of idiomatic language. It's not. It's just more of Mr. Rees' re-hashed paperbacks of 'off the wall' or whatever they were called. Don't bother. If you do ... I bet you don't finish it.
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