All talk and no trousers

[Tdol]

Click here for the definition of this idiom.

[silversea]

Tdol, this is British English only right? I have never heard that in American English. Thanks

[Tdol]

It's British English.

[light]

we have a similar one in my mother tongue.

(something like) "It only thunders but never rains"...

[Ouisch]

The "trousers" part gives away its British roots immediately. (I learned the hard way to stop referring to my trousers as "pants" when I was in the UK.)

"All talk and no action" would seem to be the American equivalent of this idiom.

[Tdol]

Another American speaker suggested this : http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...no+cattle.html

[aliaa]

We've got this idiom in our language I mean similar to it

[RonBee]

Another American speaker suggested this : http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...no+cattle.html

That's an Americanism, all right. Specifically, Texan.

[BobK]

I've heard a possibly related idiom - 'all mouth and trousers', meaning vociferous and blustering in a particularly male way (brimming with testosterone )

b

PS oops - just read Tdol's original link.

[Tdol]

It seems that it started life in the north as 'all mouth and trousers' and picked up a negative on its way south.