We’re busted at the gills

Posted: August 5, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

This gem was heard on episode 600 of Property Brothers.  One of the clients, describing the tight quarters, said that when they have friends over “we’re busted at the gills”.  This is a congruent conflation of “packed (or full) to the gills”  and “bursting at the seams”, both meaning to be extremely full or crowded with no room to spare.  “Busted” is commonly misused for the word “bursted”, as in the song from Carousel, “June is busting out all over” (June wasn’t the name of the heroine, right?).   A big thanks to the eagle eared prolific malaphor contributor Yvonne Stam for hearing this one and sending it in!

prop brothers

We are going to keep this one in the back of our pocket

Posted: May 10, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 6 Comments

This was spoken by one of the Property Brothers (Drew Scott), referring to a house that was a “maybe”.  I believe this is a mash up of “”in the back of my mind” and “put it in my back pocket”, both meaning to keep an idea to use later.  This one is subtle but nevertheless a nice mixed idiom.  Hats off to Yvonne Stam for hearing this one!