Power play
- POSTED ON: 18 May, 2023
- TOTAL VIEWS: 183 Views
- POSTED BY: Bhavya Venkatesh
- ARTICLE POINTS: 150 Points
If you follow sports closely, you’ll notice that every sport has a set of phrases or terms used to describe certain situations or actions. Over the years, some of these phrases started being used to describe situations outside the sporting arena as well.
For instance, when someone ‘calls the shots’, it means they are in charge. This comes from billiards. When ‘the ball is in your court’, it means it is your decision or your responsibility to do something. This originated from tennis.Below are some other phrases/idioms. Can you guess the sport from which they originated?
1. When you are on a sticky wicket, it means that you are in a tricky or awkward situation. In the sporting context, this phrase is used to describe a pitch that has been drying after rain and is difficult to play on.
2. When something goes down to the wire, it means that its outcome is not decided till the very last moment. This phrase comes from a sport where there was a practice of stretching a wire across the finish line.
3. When you have someone in your corner, it means that they are supporting you and helping you. This idiom comes from a sport where the athlete’s trainer and assistant are usually in his/her corner to give them advice between rounds.
4. This phrase means that no rules or restrictions will be applied in a situation or conflict. It originated from a sport in which various ‘holds’ are used to pin one’s opponent. Eventually some holds were decided to be too dangerous and therefore banned from the sport. But a competition in which even the banned holds were allowed to be used was usually advertised as ‘no holds barred’.
5. When someone tells you that you have hit it out of the park, it means that you have done something outstandingly well. The origin of this idiom is from a sport where the player literally hits the ball so hard that it lands outside the area of play (similar to a six in cricket).