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Sayings About Animals #3

The missing words in these popular cliches are the names of animals. See if you can guess them.
Some answers are plural
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: August 28, 2018
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First submittedNovember 4, 2010
Times taken74,157
Average score75.0%
Rating3.82
4:00
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Cliche
Get your ducks in a row
The bee's knees
Birds of a feather flock together
The straw that broke the camel's back
Till the cows come home
There's more than one way to skin a cat
Jive turkey
A chicken in every pot
Dog and pony show
It's raining cats and dogs
Cliche
Bats in the belfry
Like a fish out of water
Take the bull by the horns
Wild goose chase
Go hog wild
Don't change horses in mid-stream
Like a lamb to slaughter
A leopard can't change his spots
Have a monkey on one's back
When the cat's away, the mice will play
57 Comments
+8
Level 33
Feb 15, 2012
What on earth is 'go hog wild?'
+4
Level 68
Oct 6, 2013
The bee's knees? That is the stupidest phrase I've ever heard.
+5
Level 75
May 13, 2014
It was one of the expressions used by flappers in America during the Roaring 20s to mean something good. "This drink is the bee's knees." It appeared in print several years earlier, too, in newspaper cartoons.
+1
Level 34
Jun 29, 2018
..still use it, along with the cat's whiskers...
+2
Level 66
Jun 26, 2023
Cat's pyjamas
+7
Level 71
Jun 30, 2017
bees knees are smaller than ants pants
+12
Level 81
Oct 7, 2018
It's still widely used in the UK.
+2
Level 59
Dec 30, 2020
No it isn't.
+6
Level 81
Dec 30, 2020
Yes it is. ;-p
+1
Level 30
Jun 28, 2023
It absolutely is.
+4
Level 75
Jul 12, 2019
I thought it came from mispronouncing 'business'
+2
Level 79
Dec 30, 2020
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the phrase was first used to denote something small and insignificant, but transferred to the opposite sense in US slang. It means 'an outstandingly good person or thing'.
+2
Level 79
Dec 30, 2020
I think it's a marvellous phrase!
+7
Level 89
Dec 30, 2020
You don't like "bee's knees?!" I think it's the cat's pajamas! ;)
+1
Level 76
Dec 10, 2014
Way too much time. 2 minutes should be plenty for anyone.
+6
Level 70
Dec 24, 2014
Never heard the 'Dog and Pony Show' ............ what is?
+2
Level 33
Jul 29, 2020
It basically means putting on an elaborate show of what you are doing just for the show of it. We use the term at work sometimes when a supervisor comes around to watch us work. We put on a 'dog and pony show' when we do things the way they want us to do them, even if it's less efficient and not really necessary, just because it's the way they want to see us do it.
+3
Level 40
Sep 4, 2015
Why would one develop the motivation to find different ways to skin a cat?
+2
Level 70
Feb 14, 2016
I believe the saying used a dog originally "The earliest version appears as far back as 1678, in the second edition of John Ray’s collection of English proverbs, in which he gives it as “there are more ways to kill a dog than hanging”
+1
Level 60
Mar 15, 2016
Probably catgut manufacturers. I'd assume there's a whole economies of scale thing with cat skinning to get enough guts to make tennis rackets and violin bows. A catgutter who picked the wrong skinning method could well go out of business.
+3
Level 70
Oct 20, 2016
Cat gut was not made out of Cat's guts, usually the intestines of sheep or goat, depending on usage (rackets or violin strings, archery bow strings etc and sometimes used in sutures for cuts.)
+1
Level 61
Jul 1, 2023
I know I'm late to this game, but the "cat" in this phrase is actually a catfish. Catfish have skin, not scales, and there really are multiple ways you can skin and fillet them. So the phrase isn't nearly as horrifying as it seems. Malbaby is right that catgut has never been made from cats, but used to be made mostly from sheep's intestines and is now usually nylon.
+6
Level 33
Mar 13, 2016
Can you accept the singular and plural forms of each animal? Just wondering.
+5
Level 72
May 19, 2019
He could, whether he will is another matter..
+18
Level 79
May 19, 2017
Jive Bunny, might be a uk thingthough
+10
Level 81
Oct 7, 2018
Jive Bunny is all I've ever heard too.
+2
Level 69
Dec 30, 2020
My mind went straight to jive bunny as well, but less a saying than a megamix monster!

Jive Turkey I've heard used as an insult every now and then

+1
Level 56
Dec 30, 2020
Jive Turkey was used a lot in the US in the 1970s.
+3
Level 81
Dec 30, 2020
Same here! Any chance of that being accepted?
+1
Level 16
Jun 22, 2017
You should accept geese of a feather.
+2
Level 47
Jan 23, 2018
Anyone else randomly guess an animal and than get it right but then feel bad
+1
Level 70
Apr 2, 2018
No
+1
Level 51
Dec 30, 2020
No
+1
Level 75
Nov 3, 2021
Yes
+1
Level 37
Mar 28, 2023
yes
+5
Level 85
Apr 2, 2018
I was intrigued by "jive bunny," so I looked it up. It's not really a saying - it's a UK-based pop music act.
+2
Level 81
Dec 30, 2020
Which spawned a lot of phrases and cultural references. Just because you can't find it on the Internet, doesn't erase it from history...
+1
Level 27
Apr 23, 2018
Could you accept "cock" for chicken?
+2
Level 61
Jun 26, 2023
Doesn't make any sense here.
+2
Level 35
Nov 14, 2018
horse for horses?
+3
Level 80
Dec 13, 2020
Never heard of jive turkey, but Jive Bunny was all the rage one year when I was a school
+5
Level 44
Dec 28, 2020
Thought it was jive bunny
+1
Level 79
Dec 30, 2020
Arrgghh... got all of them but 'jive turkey'.
+1
Level 61
Jul 1, 2023
Same haha
+2
Level 77
Dec 30, 2020
the straw broke the horse’s back the way i heard it, could you accept that as an answer?
+3
Level 89
Dec 30, 2020
It did seem a long shot to try Jive Bunny, but then i've never heard of Jive Turkey anyway...
+1
Level 72
Dec 30, 2020
"Jive turkey is a little over the line my man!"
+1
Level 62
Dec 30, 2020
never heard the turkey or chicken ones but got the rest :-)
+1
Level 57
Dec 30, 2020
How about ---- s&*t crazy?
+1
Level 45
Dec 31, 2020
I see a bunch of comments of people saying they have never heard of Jive Turkey, but have heard of Jive Bunny. For me, it's the opposite. I had never heard of Jive Bunny in my life before reading these comments.
+3
Level 62
Jan 3, 2021
Yep! Jive Bunny.
+1
Level 68
May 25, 2023
Many African Americans used the expression "Jive Turkey" in the 1970's in reference to smooth-talking men who tried to trick people. I heard it hundreds of times in Manhattan back in those days; I think by the early 1980's, it began to sound as ridiculous as "bee's knees" sounds to us today.
+1
Level 75
Jun 26, 2023
Never heard of jive anything.
+1
Level 75
Jun 26, 2023
I know this is a family quiz site, but "jive ass" is common and an ass is a donkey.
+1
Level 48
Jun 26, 2023
I wrote "have a tick on one's back".

Oh, my logic under mild pressure...

+3
Level 68
Jun 27, 2023
Don't worry, I tried panda.
+2
Level 68
Jun 29, 2023
I tried Crocodile, Alligator, and Flamingo for the Jive question.