💰 Cost an Arm and a Leg: The Pricey Phrases We Use 🦵
We’ve all heard it and perhaps even said it ourselves. To say something “cost an arm and a leg” feels instinctively hyperbolic—and that’s precisely the point. This cliché implies that the expense was so outrageous, you might as well have offered up your limbs in payment.
Related and Similar Terms:
- Break the bank: To spend an excessive amount of money.
- Pay through the nose: To be charged an exorbitant amount.
- Highway robbery: Describing a shockingly expensive bill or price.
- Shell out: To pay, usually reluctantly.
- Fork over: To hand over money, often enforced.
Definitions and Usage:
- Cost an arm and a leg: To be very expensive.
- Synonyms: prohibitively expensive, exorbitant, pricey, lavish.
- Antonyms: cheap, economical, reasonable, to cost peanuts.
🎥 Lights, Camera, Expensive Action!
- Literature: “A Twelve-Step Program to Financial Recovery,” a must-read albeit fictitious book by Penny Wise.
- Books: “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a classic tale of the opulent lifestyle.
- Songs: “Money, Money, Money” by ABBA—a tribute to the grandeur of wealth.
- Movies: “The Wolf of Wall Street,” a cautionary financier’s tale of lavish expenditures.
Humor-Filled Quotations:
- “You know you’ve overpaid when even your credit card screams ‘uncle!’” — Imagine Credit
- “I can’t even afford to pay attention!” — Broke Joke Society
Proverbs and Expressions:
- “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
- Proverb Origin: Common
- Meaning: It’s easy for careless spenders to lose their wealth.
Educational Endeavors:
Delve deep and discover why “cost an arm and a leg” isn’t make-believe but can feel all too real. Get acquainted with idioms that strike at the heart (or wallet) of human experience.
Quizzes
### Which of these is a real idiom?
- [x] Cost an arm and a leg
- [ ] Purchase with pocket lint
- [ ] Spend two elbows and a toe
- [ ] Trade a sneeze for a pony
> **Explanation:** "Cost an arm and a leg" is a commonly known idiom meaning to be very expensive. The others are pure imagination!
### Which phrase is genuine?
- [x] Pay through the nose
- [ ] Buy with a fish and a wish
- [ ] Shell out a giraffe's neck
- [ ] Save a penny, lose an ear
> **Explanation:** "Pay through the nose" means to be charged an exorbitant amount. The others? Fishy, tall tales, and just plain strange!
### True or False: 'Break the bank' means to perform a magic trick.
- [ ] True
- [x] False
> **Explanation:** "Break the bank" actually means to spend all your money or more than you can afford, not a magic trick, though financial Houdinis would be handy.
Farewell Thought
As you navigate life’s expenses, may your pockets stay deep, your bargains be plenty, and your idioms never cost an arm or a leg!
— Eli N. Slackwitt, 2023
