unoaman

All of us learned, and probably are still learning "familiar Phrases", oftentimes quaint, or colloquial sayings. To me, and I think most people they reduce a line of thought to a few simple, and familiar words.

An example would be "caught red handed". We all know what that implys, without actually knowing the details of the activity.

Some, such as the one above are nationwide, perhaps world wide in terms of use, but surely some are particular to a given country, or even to a region.

That said, tell us your favorite, or perhaps just most familiar phrase; a word or two about origin or usage would also be nice.