Page 2 - IDIOMS - Q
P. 2
Q
• Quarrel with bread and butter.
Bread and butter, here, indicate the means of one’s living. If a sub-ordinate in an organization is
quarrelsome or if he is not patient enough to bear the reprimand he deserves, gets angry and retorts or
provokes the hogher-up, the top man dismisses him from the job. So, he loses the job that gave him bread
and butter. Hence we say, he quarreled with bread and butter. Hence we say, he quarreled with bread and
butter (manager or the top man) and lost his job.
• Quiet as a cat.
If somebody is as quiet as a cat they make as little noise as possible and try to be unnoticeable.
• Quiet as a mouse.
If someone’s as quiet as a mouse, they make absolutely no noise.
• Queer fish.
A strange person is a queer fish.
64
