Stonehenge at sunrise.
The summer solstice, also known as ‘the longest day’, is celebrated this year on June 20, 2008. This day of the year has the most hours of daylight and shortest night. In the Northern Hemisphere it always occurs in mid-June, while in the Southern Hemisphere it occurs in December.
Meaning: to support a cause only because it is popular to do so.
If you ‘jump on the bandwagon’, you join a growing movement in support of someone or something when that movement is seen to be about to become successful.
Show Girl in Hollywood Poster (1930)
Meaning: ‘get to the point’.
Meaning: ‘very pleased’
This expression refers to the Punch and Judy puppet character. Punch’s name comes from Polchinello (sometimes spelled Punchinello), an Italian puppet with similar characteristics. In Punch and Judy shows, the grotesque Punch is portrayed as self-satisfied and pleased with his evil actions.
Meaning: very happy or delighted.
Meaning: an impossible 'no-win' situation
Originally exclusive to bureaucracy, and used to describe a regulation which depended on another, which in turn depended on the first, this idiom today is used to describe any no-win situation, or a situation which seems impossible or difficult because it contains two opposite facts. It originated from Joseph Heller’s famous 1961 novel of the same name.
While a vast number of idioms originate from historical periods, this is not true of all of them, and ‘having a bad hair day’ is one of these exceptions.
Originally meaning ‘a day when your hair seems unmanageable', the use of this expression has now extended to describe a day when everything seems to go wrong.
'She threw the money willy - nilly on the table'.
This expression has two slightly differing yet related meanings – it can mean ‘in a disorganised way’ or ‘whether with or against your will’.
'She couldn't understand the text, it sounded like mumbo - jumbo.'
Meaning: To think very hard to find an answer.
