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etymology - Clean as a whistle — why is a whistle considered . . . clean as a whistle Completely, entirely, thoroughly, as in He chopped off the branch, clean as a whistle The allusion in this simile is unclear It my have been a replacement for the 18th-century clear as a whistle, which alluded to the pure, clean sound of a whistle (it has few overtones) However, it was adopted to describe something
Is the idiom as neat as a pin an American phrase? Earliest confirmed occurrences of 'as neat as a [new] pin' Although (as noted in John Mack's answer) the OED identifies a 1787 instance from the Columbian Magazine—a U S publication—as the first occurrence in print of the phrase, "neat as a new pin, searches of the Google Books and Hathi Trust databases yield instances from 1765 and 1771—one from a London magazine and one from a book
How did the word beaver come to be associated with vagina? Jonathon Green's sources (as cited in Brian Hooper's answer) notwithstanding, the limerick that appears in Immortalia: An Anthology of American Ballads, Sailors' Songs, Cowboy Songs, College Songs, Parodies, Limericks, and Other Humorous Verses and Doggerel (1927) runs as follows:
Describe the whistle one makes when surprised He gave a low long whistle of surprise Oxford Learner's Dictionary You could say long or prolonged whistle, as in "let out a prolonged whistle of admiration " prolonged adjective Continuing for a long time or longer than usual; lengthy OED Here's an example in a book about golf One of the caddies gave a prolonged whistle of surprise and
Why do we use catch for describing a contracted illness Stack Exchange Network Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers
Clean vs Clear - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Clean, as adjective, means: Free from dirt, marks, or stain (the room was spotlessly clean) Morally uncontaminated; pure; innocent (clean living) Free from irregularities; having a smooth edge or surface (a clean fracture of the leg) Clear, as adjective, means:
single word requests - English Language Usage Stack Exchange Hand Whistling: To whistle in this manner, the hands should be cupped together and the air needs to be blown out of the mouth into the resonant chamber formed by hands Bottom-lip Whistling: The bottom-lip whistling is performed by sucking the air inside the mouth The turbulence in this type of whistling is created by pinching the bottom lip
What is the origin of the idiom with all the bells and whistles? If the idiom were to be drawn from everyday usage, where bells and whistles were a common element of factories, locomotives, and steamships among other things, then the "bells and whistles" were crucial safety or signalling devices integral to what the thing did, whether it was a factory whistle used to control workers or a locomotive whistle
History of Clean-Slate phrase - English Language Usage Stack Exchange In modern parlance both meanings live on In particular the term clean slate has seen a recent uptick due to its use as an engineering term A "Clean Slate Design" or "Clean Slate Initiative" such as Boeing's 787 and Project Yellowstone, respectively, imply throwing away old engineering assumptions and designs These terms are quite popular in