The phrase “winging it” usually implies the same thing as having your first swimming lesson by being thrown into the deep end of a pool.
It takes courage and sometimes ability you didn’t know you had.
It’s an exercise familiar to good salespeople.
The expression derives from an unprepared stage actor standing in the “wings” and cramming desperately before hearing a cue that will force him onstage.
Playing cards in Spanish are called tarjeta, meaning “little shields”.
The phrase “no dice,” meaning “no deal,” comes from a time when dice were tossed during a game and either didn’t land flat or were thrown out of play.
The expression “egg on your face” means to look foolish or embarrassed and comes from bad actors having eggs thrown at them by the audience.
“One potato, two potato, three potato, four,” the children’s counting-rhyme, originated in Canada around 1885.
