Where did you get the expressions from- they're not standard idioms I have come across. The idea's clear, but we say to know something like the back of your hand, and I have not come across your versions.

Student or Learner
Dear teachers,
Would you share with me your opinion concerning the interpretation of the expressions in bold in the following sentence?
She’d cleaned us special – on the chance. Not that she’s got anything to clean. Everything’s popped. It’s as bare as a bone at Terry’s. (Gr. Green, “The Confidential Agent”)
..there’s nowhere to hide on this island. It’s as bare as your hand. (A. Christie, “And Then There Were None”)
bare as a bone = bare as the palm of one’s hand = bare as the back of one’s hand = bare to the skin, desert
Thank you for your efforts..
Regards,
V.
Last edited by vil; 16-Feb-2011 at 18:41.
Where did you get the expressions from- they're not standard idioms I have come across. The idea's clear, but we say to know something like the back of your hand, and I have not come across your versions.
ADJECTIVE:DIVESTED &c. v.; bare, naked, nude; undressed, undraped, unclad, ungarmented, unclothed, unappareled, unarrayed; exposed; in dishabille.
IN A STATE OF NATURE, in nature’s garb, in buff, in native buff, in birthday suit; in puris naturalibus [L.]; with nothing on, stark-naked; bare as the back of one’s hand.
out at elbows; threadbare, ragged, callow, roofless; barefoot; bareback, barebacked; leafless, napless, hairless.
BALD, hairless, depilous [rare], glabrous, glabrate, tonsured, beardless, bald as a coot.
EXUVIAL, sloughy, desquamative, desquamatory.
http://www.bartleby.com/110/226.html
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