Just Another Cliche
Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 2:54PM
rebecca in lists, monthly theme

taffy%20out%20the%20windowHow about helping me compile a list of dog related cliches? You were pretty good at coming up with dog novels, so I’m betting you’ll shine in the cliche department, too. [Updated to say that you’ve proven me right once again!]

You know the drill: I start the list, you add your contributions in the comments and I move it all up to the master list in the post, linking back to your blog if you’ve got one.

Ready? Let the game begin.

  1. Dog days of summer. You knew I’d start with this one, didn’t you?
  2. Let sleeping dogs lie.
  3. Kim of Hireath: Like a dog with a bone.
  4. Every dog has his day.
  5. You don’t need to act like I shot your dog.
  6. That dog won’t hunt.
  7. Pam of a rustling of leaves…: In the dog house.
  8. It’s a dog eat dog world out there!
  9. My dogs are barking. (sore feet)
  10. Let sleeping dogs lie.
  11. Dog tired.
  12. threegirldad: I [don’t] gotta dog in this fight.
  13. A barking dog doesn’t bite. (Spanish proverb) (Also mentioned by Kim in ON)
  14. Love me, love my dog.
  15. A dog is a man’s best friend.
  16. The tail wagging the dog.
  17. He/She works like a dog.
  18. Walk the dog. (a yo-yo trick)
  19. “A dog has the soul of a philosoper.” — Plato 
  20. Proverbs 26:11 (I linked the verse so you can check it out for yourself.)
  21. Dorothy: You can teach an old dog new tricks.
  22. It’s raining cats and dogs from Scott Gilbreath, who says he hasn’t heard this cliche since moving from Vancouver to Whitehorse. (I know from experience that the only time it rains cats and dogs in Whitehorse is right after you’ve told your visiting relatives that it never pours here like it does back in Minnesota.)
  23. Rey adds two that he says have been used on him: Your bark is worse than your bite and
  24. Your mouth smells like dog breath.
  25. From Leslie: Like a bird dog on point. “That’s what we say,” she explains, “when someone makes a keen observation.”
  26. Happiness is a warm puppy.~ Charles Shulz, which Leslie admits isn’t a cliche, but just the thought of holding a puppy made her smile, so she  had to share it.
  27. Well, as long as we’re thinking about puppies, how about puppy love?
  28. Thank goodness threegirldad returned to save us from our puppy mushiness with barking up the wrong tree and
  29. Those who sleep with dogs will rise with fleas. (Italian proverb)
  30. Also from threegirldad, a dog quote: Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. — commonly attributed to Groucho Marx
  31. Karen adds a slightly different version of threegirldad’s Italian proverb: Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.
  32. Also from Karen: That kid runs like a scalded dog and
  33. You lie like a dog.
  34. A few more from Dorothy: The dog ate my homework,
  35. Sick as a dog,
  36. Once in a dog’s age, and
  37. Treated like a dog, which she says is “something our daughter thinks is a good thing—because at our house, it is!”
  38. From Rose and Janna at almost exactly the same time: Three dog night.
  39. Kim of Hiraeth has a whole list of Doggie Quotes and Proverbs at her blog.
  40. From Kim in On: Looks like the dog’s breakfast.
  41. Mummymac says that in Northern Ireland they say something looks like the dog’s dinner.
  42. Another from Kim of Hiraeth: The hair of the dog that bit ya.
Photo by Andrew Stark. Click for larger view.
Article originally appeared on Rebecca Writes (http://rebecca-writes.com/).
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