Hello, all! It seems like forever since we’ve “talked” with each other. In the past few months I’ve worked from my dad’s house in Washington a few weeks, and I went on a brief vacation to New York with my mom, but over the last week and a half, I finally got to go on vacation with my husband. What a luxury! I don’t have a lot of English tips to share with you because we were in Barcelona (Spain), but hopefully, I can teach you some things I learned about, share some photos, and weave in some handy language tips in the process.
Today’s selection is a few items from a much longer list of house idioms, from Daily Writing Tips.
The integral nature and the ubiquity of houses in our culture has given rise to a number of idiomatic expressions that include the word house. This post lists such terms.
1. A house of cards: a precarious situation, from the notion of an activity in which one or more people try to build a structure out of vertically placed playing cards without causing it to collapse
2. Basket house: A music venue in which performers earn only money collected in a basket or other receptacle as donations
3. Boardinghouse reach: An especially long reach across a table, alluding to the relaxed table manners of a boardinghouse, a lodging in which meals are provided
4. Brick house: A sexually attractive woman, from the notion that she, on the analogy of a sturdy structure made of brick, is well built
5. Get along like a house on fire: Become friends immediately upon meeting
6. Hash house: An inexpensive restaurant
7. House of many doors: Slang for prison
8. Shotgun house: Slang for a long, narrow house built with rooms in a straight line, from the notion that a shotgun shell could be fired through the front door and out the back door
And as far as the vacation connection, one of the most amazing things we saw was Casa Batlló (the Batlló House), designed by Antoni Gaudí. What a thoughtful, creative architect!
Casa Batlló
Living Room at Casa Batlló
Light Well Through Glass at Casa Batlló
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory
Symitar Documentation Services
Editor's Corner 
Leave a Reply