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EXPRESSIONS

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F

fingers in the dyke

"There was more to it than that, probably more than there had been before and certainly less than there should have been, but it all felt a little like "finger in the dyke" stuff."                                                  –Chris Patten

"Fewer fingers in the dyke"

CATEGORY    

Idiomatic  English, legend

MEANING

A dyke is a bank built to hold back water. 

The story (1) goes that a boy in Holland kept his finger in a dyke until help arrived, thus preventing a flood.  

The expression "fingers in the dyke" comes from this story of the boy who stuck his finger in a dyke.

Such a story is very hard to believe inasmuch one may wonder how a boy can actually, by the sole strength of his finger, prevent the burst of a construction big as a dyke.

(1)This story  is the literary invention of the American
writer Mary Elizabeth Mapes Dodge. It was only after the book was published that the legend was known in the Netherlands.

USE

You can use this expression everytime you are talking about any token gesture or approach such as temporary measures  taken in order to solve a problem, from the moment you consider that such measures are insufficient and  not really useful or efficient.

WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING BEST ANSWERS :

from Dr Robin Bignall

(UK culture.language.english)

"The Dutch story is OK as far as it goes, but I think the point is that if help hadn't arrived, the dyke would have burst and the finger was really just a token or temporary measure. 

In the case of government, where many people think that something needs doing that they consider vital, but the government doesn't want to do it for political reasons or because it will cost money, they often make a token gesture of apparently doing something when they're not actually doing much at all. This 'finger in the dyke' approach may work (for a while) but it may come back to haunt them eventually.

Another British idiom which means a similar thing is 'to pay lip service' to something: not give it the attention it deserves.

Thus, I'd say that the current problems with the railways (amongst other things) in Britain are because successive governments over 40 or 50 years have taken a 'finger in the dyke' approach and done the minimum possible in terms of investment.

This is my interpretation of what Patten meant. I'll be interested to see what others think."

FOLLOW-UP

 Here is another one with the word "dyke" :

phrase : "to hold the dyke against"

quote : "THE GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO HOLD THE DYKE AGAINST RISING PRICES."

If you think you can explain the meaning of this phrase, write to us. Click here now  We will post the best answers. 

Si vous pensez pouvoir expliquer cette expression, cliquez ci-dessus sur "click here now" . Les meilleures explications seront publiées sur le site.

to fly by the seat of the pants

QUOTE 

"He often flies by the seat of his pants"

CATEGORY             

idiom

MEANING

To fly by the seat of the pants means to rely on intuition, a metaphor extended from early aviation when to "fly by the seat of the pants" was to determine aircraft's attitude from physical sensations rather than instruments.  If you fly by the seat of your pants, you decide a course of action as you go along, using your own initiative and perceptions rather than a pre-determined plan or theory.

FOLLOW-UP

There are more expressions than you can shake a stick at. Here is another one with the word "pants" :

           phrase : "to wear the pants"

If you think you can explain the meaning of this phrase, write to us. Click here now  We will post the best answers. 

Si vous pensez pouvoir expliquer cette expression, cliquez ci-dessus sur "click here now" . Les meilleures explications seront publiées sur le site.