We don’t step on each others’ feathers
Posted: November 24, 2014 Filed under: BODY PARTS, feather, toes | Tags: expressions, humor, language, malaphor, malaphors, mixed idioms, ruffle someone's feathers, step on someone's toes, words 1 CommentThis wonderful malaphor comes from Matt Deppe, first time contributor to the site. Last week a friend was trying to explain to him why he and his house mate get along so well. “I guess it works so well because we don’t step on each others’ feathers”. This is a mash up of “step on someone’s toes” (to insult or offend someone) and “ruffle someone’s feathers” (to annoy or irritate someone).
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This morning I described to my friend that when I emptied the dust collected in a bagless vacuum cleaner into the garbage can, “It was just like a ‘mushroom bomb’ had exploded.” My friend gave me a funny look. I realized then that I had combined the “mushroom cloud” created by an “atom bomb” and called it a “mushroom bomb.” I don’t know if that counts as a malaphor.