Not just whistling dixie
verb phrase
To be saying something important or useful: When they warned us about this they weren’t just whistling Dixie
Related Terms
whistle dixie
Read Also:
- Not know beans
verb phrase (Variations: diddly or diddley or diddly-damn or diddly-poo or diddly-poop or diddly-shitor diddly-squat or diddly-squirt or diddlywhoop or shit or squat or zilch or zip may replace beans) To be very ignorant; not know even the fundamentals •In each case the positive and negative idiom have the same meaning: You don’t know beans, […]
- Not know from nothing
verb phrase To be ignorant; be deeply uninformed or ill-informed: Gallo knows from nothing [1936+; fr Yiddish nit zu wissen fin gornisht] Related Terms know from nothing
- Not know shit from shinola
verb phrase NOT KNOW one’s ASS FROM one’s ELBOW •Often euphemized: a tightfisted banker who doesn’t know what from Shinola/ In high school I didn’t know shoot from Shinola [1930+; fr Shinola2, a brand of shoe polish; used partly for a suggestion of brown color, mainly for alliteration]
- Not know someone from adam
verb phrase (also Adam’s off ox or from Adam’s house cat)Tobe entirely unacquainted with or uncognizant of: We’re bigger than 90 percent of the companies on the Big Board, but nobody knows us from Adam/ I didn’t know from Adam’s house cat who Nolan Ryan was (entry form 1843+, ox 1890+, cat 1908+) Be unable […]
- Not know something if it bit someone
verb phrase To be quite ignorant and unperceptive: Kuttner wouldn’t know a strategic trade policy if it bit him on the leg (1990s+)