Pairs #17

All shapes and sizes. To say that things or people of a certain type come in all shapes and sizes means there are a great number of them and they are often different from one another.

Cliques and clans. Friends and relatives.

Shake ‘N Bake. A brand of seasoned bread crumb coating for meat and vegetables, marketed as a healthier alternative to frying (since 1965).

Nip and tuck. 1. Closely contested or very near to failing or ending. 2. Slang for a rhytidectomy, commonly known as a facelift.

Ticks and chiggers. Two critters to avoid in warmer weather.

Hearts and minds. Private feelings and emotions. To “win hearts and minds” is to persuade, or to at least minimize resistance.

Weed and feed. A preparation that acts as both an herbicide (to kill weeds) and a fertilizer (usually for lawns).

Bench and bar. Judges and lawyers in aggregate.

Milk and cookies. At one time, a typical after-school snack. (as Milk and Cookies) A song from Melanie Martinez’s 2015 album Cry Baby. (as Milk ‘N’ Cookies) A US power pop band (1973-1977, 2005-2008).

Duck and cover. An alleged method of personal protection against the affects of a nuclear explosion. (as Duck and Cover) A 1952 US Federal Civil Defense Administration film distributed broadly to US schools in which the animated Bert the Turtle teaches the children in his audience how to duck and cover if they see the flash of an atomic bomb.

Lost and Found. (US) An office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others.

Pins and needles. A common type of paresthesia (abnormal skin sensation). The idiomatic phrase on pins and needles means “feeling sharp anticipation or anxiety; in a state of suspense.”

Time and tide. A shortening of the maxim “Time and tide wait/tarry/stay for no man,” meaning that opportunities will not wait; action should be undertaken without delay.

Clean and tidy. Clean and organized.

Flora and fauna. Plants and animals of a given locale, in a given time frame, or both.

Hem and haw. To mumble and procrastinate in one's speech, especially with a reply to a hard question or with voicing a decision on a topical matter; to evade a question, giving vague answers; to equivocate or temporize.

Rise and shine. (idiomatic, imperative) Used to wish someone happiness upon waking up.

Rock and roll. (or rock & roll, rock-n-roll, rock 'n' roll, rock 'n roll, rock n' roll) A genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Arm & Hammer. A US brand of baking soda-based consumer products.

Pickles and ice cream. Shorthand for pregnancy cravings, generally.

AT & T. A US multinational telecommunications holding company.

Flint and steel. A method of fire starting requiring a flint (or similar rock) and a piece of carbon steel.

Weep and wail. Cockney rhyming slang for “tale,” used to refer to a fanciful hard luck story intended to elicit sympathy.

Ben & Jerry’s. A US company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet.