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Old 13-Oct-2006, 05:39
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Post cuckoo's nest

If somebody can explain the meaning of : " To fly over/into the cuckoo's nest." I've read somwhere long ago that cuckoos don't make their own nests. How come this idiom/saying.
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Old 13-Oct-2006, 16:44
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Default Re: cuckoo's nest

"Cuckoo's nest" is usually used as a slang expression to mean a mental hospital or padded cell. Booby hatch, funny farm, nut house are all synonyms.
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Old 15-Oct-2006, 09:21
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Default Re: cuckoo's nest

It's not an idiom. It's the title of a book
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Old 15-Oct-2006, 18:11
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Default Re: cuckoo's nest

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tdol View Post
It's not an idiom. It's the title of a book

Technically speaking, the book took its title from a children's rhyme/finger game:

Wire, Brier, Limber Lock
Three Geese in a Flock
One Flew East
One Flew West
And one flew over the cuckoos nest!
O-U-T spells out
Goose swoops down and plucks you out!


But "cuckoo's nest" is often used as a (not necessarily politically correct) synonym for a mental hospital.
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Old 15-Oct-2006, 21:27
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Default Re: cuckoo's nest

As a footnote:

"Going cuckoo" is a non-serious way of saying "going slightly and harmlessly mad".

MrP
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