What is the meaning of the phrase a bolt from the blue?

What is the meaning of the phrase a bolt from the blue?

Definition of bolt from the blue : a complete surprise : something totally unexpected.

Where does the saying a bolt out of the blue come from?

What’s the origin of the phrase ‘A bolt from the blue’? The earliest citation is Thomas Carlyle, in The French Revolution, 1837: “Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the Blue, has hit strange victims.”

How do you use a bolt from the blue?

Examples of a bolt from the blue It was a bolt from the blue and in this case it affects me. I do not think hostilities have ever been begun except by something rather approaching a bolt from the blue. This latest development came to many of us who are concerned about the problem as a bolt from the blue.

What is the meaning of the idiom a bolt out of a clear sky?

If something happens out of a clear blue sky, it happens completely unexpectedly, with no warning. Note: This expression compares an unexpected event to a bolt of lightning from a blue sky.

What does a fish out of water mean?

A person away from his or her usual environment or activities. For example, Using a computer for the first time, Carl felt like a fish out of water, or On a hiking trail, Nell was a fish out of water. This expression alludes to the fact that fish cannot survive for long on dry land. [ Late 1300s]

What is a bolt from the blue lightning?

A “bolt from the blue” is one of the most dangerous types of cloud to ground lightning because it happens without warning: a bolt that emerges from the side of a cloud that can travel through long horizontal channels before eventually striking the ground, several miles away from the parent storm.

What means keep your eyes peeled?

Definition of ‘to keep your eyes peeled’ If you tell someone to keep their eyes peeled for something, you are telling them to watch very carefully for it. [informal]

Can’t cut the mustard meaning?

(also can’t cut the mustard) to not be able to deal with problems or difficulties in a satisfactory way: If he can’t cut it, then we’ll get someone else to do the job.

What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘a bolt from the Blue’?

The phrase ‘A bolt from the blue’ – meaning and origin. What’s the meaning of the phrase ‘A bolt from the blue’? A complete surprise, like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky.

What is the origin of the term “Blue Sky”?

Although “blue” was a poetic allusion to the sky by 1700, the precise expression dates from the early nineteenth century. It appears in Thomas Carlyle’s description of chaotic events of the French Revolution: “Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the blue, has hit strange victims” (1837).

What does it mean when something comes from the Blue?

a ˌbolt from the ˈblue. an event or a piece of news which is sudden and unexpected; a complete surprise: She had given us no warning she was going to leave; it came as a complete bolt from the blue. This refers to a flash of lightning (= a bolt) coming from a clear blue sky.

Do you know these 29 common blue idioms?

In this post, we are going to look at 29 common blue idioms that I encourage all of my students to learn to sound more like a native English speaker. 1. Blue And White 2. Blue Blood 3. To Talk Until One Is Blue In The Face 4. To Be In A Blue Funk 4. To Be Blue Around The Gills 5. Blue Suit 6. Blue Collar 7. Black And Blue 8. Once In A Blue Moon 9.