Open a can of worms.
Here we see a pair of fish having a discussion
at the bottom of the sea. Fish love to
eat worms, and one of them, named Frank, is tempted to open the worms with a
can opener. He appears to have missed the fishing line attached to the can.
The other,
smarter fish, is warning Frank that opening the can of worms could mean a lot
of trouble. Frank should listen to his friend's warning, unless he wants to be
somebody’s dinner! The idiomatic meaning of 'open a can of worms' is to create
a situation which leads to trouble. Let's take a look at this idiom in a
conversation:
Hey, Simon.
Is Janine invited to your sister's wedding?
Sure. Why
not?
Well ...
Rhys is going to be there too.
So?
Isn't that
going to open a can of worms?
What do you
mean?
They haven't
spoken to each other since they broke up!
Oh, you're
right! And they often fight.
Hold
your horses.
This is a tag-team
wrestling match between a pair of elephants and a pair of horses.
The elephants have the obvious advantage in size and strength, but the horses
are too excited to realize this and they want to get in there and fight. Their
manager sees the danger and wants to change his mind, so he’s holding his
horses back from fighting the elephants.
You usually say 'hold your horses' to tell someone to stop doing something
because they are going too fast and could face a problem. Here's an example:
I'm so excited about this concert!
Me too. I'm really looking forward to it.
I hope it isn't sold out.
Two tickets for the front section, please.
Hold your horses, Mike. Have you seen the prices?
Oh, they're pretty expensive.
Right. We won't have enough left for a taxi home.
Okay. Let's get cheaper seats.
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