WE NEED TO GO DEEPER GUNS DRIVER

To have more than one string in your bow means to have multiple talents, skills or options. Today, you could say a football team “still has an arrow in their quiver” if they are losing the game but have their star player sitting on the bench ready to come onto the field. If someone in battles in the middle ages had an arrow in the quiver, it meant they were still dangerous. Got an Arrow in the QuiverĪn arrow in the quiver is a resource that can be relied upon to achieve a goal. Go Deeper: A List of Anger Metaphors A List of Bow and Arrow Metaphors 11. The newspaper might read: “We’ve found the smoking gun.” Today, we will often use this phrase in political contexts when evidence of a bribe or misbehavior is found. It comes from the idea that a detective who finds a gun that’s still got smoking coming out of it has found the murder weapon. This means that you’ve found some evidence of something that is undeniable. These old western cowboys were making some bad decisions! Today you might warn someone not to shoot from the hip if you see them getting mad or making assumptions without thinking things through.

It refers to the idea of someone from old Westerns who pulls their gun from the holster and shoots at their enemy without even taking a pause to aim. To shoot from the hip means to make decisions rashly or impulsively. For example, if a police officer arrested someone and then realized they had gotten the wrong person, you could accuse them of shooting first and aiming later – leading to bad consequences! 9. It’s of course better to aim before you shoot! Today, we use this phrase when talking about someone who says and does things before thinking. People who shoot first and aim later might end up killing someone who they didn’t mean to. Today, someone will yell “shotgun” to claim the front seat as theirs. In war, you could imagine the person sitting in the passenger seat to be the person holding the shotgun and shooting out the window at enemies.

To ride shotgun is to sit in the front passenger seat of a car. Today, we use the saying when we want to refer to doing something painful in order to get it over and done with. The bullet, like a leather strap, was used as something to clench to help endure pain. Supposedly, soldiers inured in battle used to be given a bullet to bite while medics were working on their wounds.

WE NEED TO GO DEEPER GUNS DRIVER

The driver might say to the passengers: “Are we all locked and loaded?” to check with everyone before driving. You’ll often hear this term when people are in the car and ensuring everyone has put their seatbelts on. If you’re locked and loaded, it means you’re ready to get going! It refers to the idea that your ammunition has been locked and loaded into a gun, ready to fire. But in everyday language, you might say you were shot down if you asked someone out on a date and they said no. It comes from the literal concept of an airplane getting shot down from the sky. This usually means to be rejected by someone or something. For example, you could say that you have set your sights on a promotion at work. But as an idiom, we will say it whenever we have set a goal. It has its origins in the idea of pointing a gun scope at a target to set your sights on what you will shoot at. To set your sights on something means to decide to achieve something. If you were to apply the sweating process to bullets, you’d be very nervous that they would blow up in your face. Another idea is that it relates to the process of sweating metal, which involves heating it to unbind it. One speculation is that it’s simply got to do with the idea that comically large sweat droplets would look like bullets. It’s not clear where this saying comes from. This means that you’re sweating profusely. In everyday life, you might say this if someone is taking extreme risks. If you were to literally stare down the barrell of a gun, it means it’s being pointed right at you and you could die at any moment. This means to do something dangerous or be in a dangerous situation.

We need to go deeper guns