A big fish in a small pond
is an expression about an important person in a small place. Do fish only grow to the size their environment is able to sustain?
Battered fish are fried and appear on a menu or in a fish and chip shop. (Batter is made from flour, egg and milk.)
A slippery as an eel describes an evasive person (who cannot be pinned down either physically or figuratively).
A silly goose is sometimes a gentle way of telling a child they have done something daft.
When the fox preaches beware of your geese is an expression I came across as an adult. Is it about false prophets?
The rat race describes human society involving commuting, work and the pressure of trying to climb a career ladder.
Are you a man or a mouse?
This rhetorical question is an idiom. It can be addressed to any timid individual to encourage them to take a bolder course of action.
I am a bear of little brain and…… bother me.
Winnie-the-Pooh said,
I am a Bear of Very Little Brain and long words Bother Me.
(The House at Pooh corner by AA Milne). It is frequently adapted to fit other situations in a jokey way.
No use shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
This is a proverb with a similar meaning to prevention is better than cure.
You can’t change your horses in midstream.
When a stream or river is so deep that a horse needs to swim a rider could not possibly change horses without risking death by drowning. The expression is used about changing one’s mind after setting out in a particular way.
A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse – it wouldn’t see either. This is said when someone has been given a hint, to indicate that they have understood the message.
On your high horse is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary as “behaving with pretentiousness or arrogance”.
A stubborn as a mule is a simile. A mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey – it has a reputation for being difficult to manage.
Shanks’ pony means on foot. The Dictionary of Modern Phrase by Graeme Donald gives the derivation from shank being a word for leg.
A herd of goats is the collective noun.
Herded together may be applied to people in a confined space.
Flocked to see is an expression about crowds of people.
A flock of sheep is the collective noun. Flocks and herds are mentioned many times in the Bible. One example is Psalm 8:7.
It also talks about the One who was led like a sheep to the slaughter. Acts 8:26-40
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