greenisgood
Junior Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2009
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Moldavian
- Home Country
- Maldives
- Current Location
- United States
She makes a train stop. Does this mean the person is unattractive or very ugly?
She makes a train stop. Does this mean the person is unattractive or very ugly?
Strangely, when I read your post it rang a bell of some kind though with not exactly the same wording. I Googled "ugly enough to stop a train" expecting to find something which would help me work out what I was thinking of. However, I found nothing useful. Even so, at the back of my mind, something is nigglingly familiar about it.
I've met it in American TV dramas. I think it's application is context sensitive. She's extremely <something> attractive, unattactive, whatever. Better wait for an American reply to be sure...She makes a train stop. Does this mean the person is unattractive or very ugly?
I've met it in American TV dramas. I think it's application is context sensitive. She's extremely <something> attractive, unattactive, whatever. Better wait for an American reply to be sure...
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Would you consider these to be idioms in AmE, or just one-liners in comedy shows?Yes, in general it refers to description of an unattractive woman and is usually stated as, "she could stop a train". There are thousands of these expressions including some about men e.g. "He's so ugly he has to sneak up on a mirror". :-D
I think that distinction breaks down - so that people start using them idiomatically without any knowledge of their script-written origin. And then TV writers who didn't hear the original script-written version pick it up as if it were an idiom, and write them into their scripts. And so the cycle goes on.... In general, I think it's as well to be aware that such a distinction might exist, but TV is so much a part of modern culture that there are lots of 'feedback loops' like this.Would you consider these to be idioms in AmE, or just one-liners in comedy shows?
Would you consider these to be idioms in AmE, or just one-liners in comedy shows?