‘Which saying did you completely misunderstand?’ – 22 people who realised they were embarrassingly hard of thinking

Common sayings are things we tend to learn through hearing other people say them. We might never see them written down or even really know if we’re using them in the right context.

And this can lead to some very comical misconceptions about what these phrases actually are, as well as what they mean.

They’ve been discussing these muddles on the AskUK subreddit after gr7calc posted about their own experience…

Which saying did you completely misunderstand?

For far too long I thought it was “to make end’s meat”. Meaning that you have to use the last, worst pieces of meat to make your meal with (meat at the end, end’s meat).

Which is sort of logical, which is more can be said for many of the other examples other people chipped in with. Check these out…

1.

‘As thick as thieves.

I think it’s to suggest a group of friends who are very close. My husband thinks it means to describe people being stupid enough to steal.’
–Ok_Watercress8597

2.

‘Took me way too long to understand “you can’t have your cake and eat it”. I kept thinking “Why not? It’s my cake, I can eat it if I want”.’
–Gone_For_Lunch

3.

‘“Horses fuck horses”. (Horses for courses).’
–riscventures2022

4.

‘Not a phrase so to speak, but I didn’t understand what ‘headlines’ were when I was maybe 5 or 6. I thought the adults were talking very sternly about their forehead wrinkles.

I discovered I was wrong when I openly asked one of my grandparents about their creasy head.’
–Commercial-Pear-543

5.

‘Growing up Catholic I always thought when the priest was giving communion out he was saying “bought you a prize”. It was only when I was old enough to take communion I realised he was saying “Body of christ”.’
–Electrical-Lab-2816

6.

‘My mate used to think ‘hazard a guess’ was actually ‘have us a guess’.’
–Peg_leg_J

7.

‘‘Don’t drink and drive’. When I was a kid I took this literally and told my father off when he opened a can of soft drink in the car.’
–Prole1979

8.

‘‘Double-down’. I thought it meant ‘back track’ but it’s literally the opposite.’
–xcxmon

9.

‘As a teenager working in a supermarket just outside the M25, I never knew why we got a “London waiting” (weighting) allowance. What were we waiting FOR??’
–eriometer

10.

‘Piece of mind, rather than peace of mind. I thought it meant to claim a piece of your mind/sanity back.’
–dahliaprimrose

11.

‘”See you later!”

“Not if I see you first!”

I just thought this was a silly phrase to imply that you can’t wait to see that person again – you’re hoping you’ll be the first one to spot them, I guess. Never really understood it but eh.

Took me years to realise the implication: Not if I see you first. As in, if I see you first, you won’t see me, because I’ll make myself scarce so you won’t spot me. It’s actually a joke insult implying you don’t want to see them again. Embarrassing to say the least!’
–BeatificBanana