Obscure sayings?

Pig in a poke

 

"all het up." As in "don't get all het up!" southern expression ,I believe.

 

What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

 

pot calling the kettle black

 

out of the frying pan and into the fire. (not very obscure)

 

cut your nose off to spite your face.

 

Southern via England... in quite common usage here, kind of thing my grandmother used to say, and I still use it myself.

 

Thanks Mr F.

 

more fun than a barrel a' monkeys. I tried that. Bastards wouldn't stay in the barrel.

 

Heavens to betsy?

 

'going bananas'

I assume that is a reference to a bunch of monkeys going wild over bananas.

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two shakes of a lamb's tail (thanks Rak)

 

"got em by the balls" or by the short hairs

Used today to imply that a person has no choice in a matter. But our modern usage is almost opposite from the original act which was performed if swearing an oath to another person. The person swearing the oath was the holder.
From the Old Testament;

Genesis 24
1And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

2And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

3And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell

 

'every Tom, Dick, and Harry'

Most of us haven't seen those guys together.

With the exception of an episode of The Smothers Brothers, where Tom and Dick Smothers had musical guest Harry Belafonte on their show and sang with him.

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I’ve always been partial to "he doesn’t know shit from shinola"




Hotwater

 

doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.