Another round of the epic German Expressions learning quiz. 5 new idioms for you to decipher in and out of contexts. Features: juice, cats, wine and more.
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Vielen Dank.
And now a very warm welcome to a new episode of
German Expressions Quiz
Hooray.
In this series, we learn German idioms and expressions, most of them useful, some just fun. And instead of me just telling you what they are and what they mean, we kind of discover them together in a little learning quiz.
Here’s how it works:
I’ll give you the idiom or expression along with a literal translation and an example, and you have to pick the right figurative meaning from a few options I am giving.
And just so it’s not too easy, the example is rather generic, so there’s zero context that could give away the meaning. And also, I’m trying to make all the options make sense in their very own way. Since we’re dealing with idioms and expressions, this approach of course means that sometimes all you can do is guess. And so for each question, you can click “hint” and then you’ll see a more specific example. So… an example that actually DOES have context and that makes it much more obvious what the right answer is.
So basically, you can first just look at the idiom and the options and see if you maybe know it or if you have a gut feeling for which “narrative” or “logic” feels the most likely. And then you can check the hint to either help or to double check your hypothesis before you lock in the answer.
But remember… this is not about getting a full score. I mean, it is of course, but the main goal is to get to know some idioms and do some abstract reasoning about language.
And of course, along with each answer, I’ll give you some quick insight into where the expression comes from and what to look out for when using it.
We’ll do 5 idioms today, followed by a quick recap and a surprise.
So if you’re ready, I’d say… enjoy. Wenn ihr bereit seid, würde ich sagen… viel Spaß!
The Expression Quiz
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Time limit: 0
Quiz Summary
0 of 7 Questions completed
Questions:
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Taken literally, this would be a juice store or “juicery”. But its main meaning in daily life is different. What could it be?
Generic example:
“Wie ist die neue Abteilung auf Arbeit?” “Ein absoluter Saftladen.” (Abteilung = department)
Correct
Incorrect
Hint
Specific example:
“Wie ist die neue Abteilung auf Arbeit?” “Ein absoluter _________. Total unorganisiert und ineffizient .”
“How’s the new department at work?” “An absolute __________ . Completely disorganized and inefficient.”
Question 2 of 7
2. Question
Let’s stay with the theme of “drinks” for a moment, but we’ll graduate from “juice” to “wine”.
“alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen”
If you take it literally, it means old wine in new wine skins. But what’s the figurative meaning of that?
Generic example:
Es gab viel alten Wein in neuen Schläuchen.
Correct
Incorrect
Hint
Specific examples:
Die Messe war enttäuschend. Viel alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen.
The fair was disappointing. Lots of _______________ .
Question 3 of 7
3. Question
Now let’s do one that involves an actual action:
“an den Haaren herbeigezogen”
The literal meaning of that would be “pulled here by the hair”. But what does it really mean?
Generic example:
Die Begründung ist an den Haaren herbeigezogen.
Correct
Incorrect
Hint
Specific example:
“Die Begründung für was der Charakter macht ist komplett an den Haaren herbeigezogen – eigentlich der ganze dumme Plot von dem Film.”
“The reasoning for what the character does is ___________________ – in fact, the entire dumb plot of the movie is.”
Question 4 of 7
4. Question
Now let’s do one that doesn’t even really seem like an idiom:
“von gestern”
Of course it means “from yesterday”. But what does it actually mean?
[XYZ] is von gestern.
Correct
Incorrect
Hint
Thomas ist nicht von gestern.
Thomas _____________ .
Das Konzept ist von gestern.
The concept ___________ .
The key hint here are not the examples themselves but the fact that there are examples. ExampleS.
Question 5 of 7
5. Question
Of course we could do an expressions quiz without animals, but it’s much better WITH animals. Everyone’s favorite animal is of course a cat (yes, even for those who think they don’t like cats). So for the last idiom, let’s do one with cat:
“für die Katz”
“for the cat”… hmmm, what does it really mean?
Generic example:
Das ist für die Katz.
Correct
Incorrect
Hint
Specific example:
Wenn dieser Investor nein sagt, war die ganze Arbeit für die Katz.
If this investor says no, all the work ___________ .
Question 6 of 7
6. Question
My super amazing Natural Intelligence Intuition based spaced repetition system says it’s time for a recap :). So let’s go. Match the context with the saying!
(drag, hold and drop. You can readjust as much as you want.)
Sort elements
an den Haaren herbeigezogen
von gestern
nicht von gestern
Saftladen
a far fetched, forced idea
outdated
not naiv
what you could use in a review for a restaurant that has shitty service
Correct
Incorrect
Question 7 of 7
7. Question
And now, everyone’s favorite thing: typing!! Imagine you prepare the most amazing dinner for your date but then the person shows up and say they just had McDonalds. Complete the idiom that would match this context.
(If you don’t have umlaut on your keyboard, you should generally use ue, oe and ae instead, and NOT just the plain letter)
All meine Mühe war .
Correct
Incorrect
***
Na? Wie lief’s? How did it go? I think two of them were quite easy but there were definitely some more tricky ones there as well. The one with the old wine is not really something people actually say when they speak, but the other ones are definitely used and if you haven’t noticed them till now, I think you will soon.
So yeah, let me know how you did, and if you have a favorite of these expressions. And of course if you have any questions about any of the idioms, go ahead and ask me in the comments , and I’ll try to clear things up.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode, have a great week und bis zum nächsten Mal.
Yeah, that’s the only way pretty much. Never as a question (Ist Thomas von gestern… NOPE!) or a side sentence, “Ich glaube, dass Thomas nicht von gestern ist…NOPE). You use it to make a statement about someone.
Forse
hi, i got a sponsored membership from Emanuel and i would like to thank everyone who made this possible for me, Emanuel told me people donated for this and so Vielen Dank, Ich habe einen Job und ich habe 3 monate mehr deutsch zu lernen, Danke alle, bis 3 Monate.
Inna
Hi, I want to thank Emanuel first, and everyone in this community who contributed and made it possible for me to get free access to this German course. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow.
berlingrabers
Somebody pointed out that the “wine/wineskins” thing is from the Bible (Luke 5:37-39 is mentioned; there are parallel versions in Matthew 9:17 and Mark 2:22).
It’s interesting what ze Germans have done with it, because in the saying, Jesus is actually talking about new wine put in old wineskins – nobody would do that, because the new wine is still fermenting and would burst the more brittle leather – rather than the reverse.
It makes sense that it’s meant negatively, but knowing the origin made me think it might be positive, because Luke 5:39 adds the remark, “Und niemand, der vom alten Wein trinkt, will neuen; denn er spricht: Der alte ist milder” (Luther 1984). I guess Germans wouldn’t be inclined to agree. :)
I was just now trying to find out if there’s any information as to when the saying switched, but couldn’t find anything.
Story time: when I was in Finland for student exchange, we’d make our own beer. They were selling these brewing kits at the supermarket and we had a baby bath brewing in the kitchen at all times. We bottled the beer into washed out bottles closing it with the cap closing device (also from the supermarket).
On one load, we decided to stir up the yeast in the bathtub and add it to the bottles AND also added some sugar so it would keep fermenting and have “more alcohol”.
It worked. But one bottle … well.. the cap exploded off and blew straight through a 2 cm think wooden shelf board. Clean shot through. So yeah… there is serious pressure going on with fermentation.
JenGLWM
ashamed to admit I achieved a 2 out of 5 – but at least I got the cat one correct :)
Great short quiz. Just the right length of for a quick German lesson. And of course, being a veterinarian, I have to mention cats! Cats (felids) are the most beloved species, and the natural animal topic. Good job! [And if someone is snarky and has to say how much they hate cats, I challenge them not to be in awe of seeing a wild felid in nature.] I’ve been blessed to see bobcats, lynxes, cougars (a wee scary) in America, and lions and cheetahs in SA. They are all a-maz-ing.
Wow that sounds awesome!! The biggest I have to offer (apart from zoo lions et al) is a Maine coon in a cat cafe in poland. That was already quite impressive to me :)
jgsheppard
Really like this series. Thanks.
None of
Started doing the quiz. Went to cook lunch. Firefox unloaded the page during that time (as it should), and now I get this new “paywall”. I don’t think I have ever seen it before. I guess the normal safety tools (uBlock Origin, NoScript, etc) blocked the previous one. Anyway, on to other free resources on the Internet. Remember kids, we invented the internet to share knowledge for free!
You had the article for free, did you not? If Firefox reloads, that is counted as a view. You know… originally, this site was running on a pay what you can afford basis, and guess what… it is not sustainable. Some people do pay, most people who could, do not. Without that paywall, none of this content here would exist because this has been my job for years now. It’s fine if you don’t want to pay, but I really don’t understand why you have to give me an attitude like that.
Dean
should say “haven’t” read anything
Dean
I can’t read the article as it keeps saying that Ive reached my limit of one article per week. However, I have read anything for several weeks as this is a recurring problem
Even with copy/paste and deleting cookies I hit the paywall, and am pretty sure I have not entered the site already this week. (Just for your information)
The count is for 7 days, but if that doesn’t apply, then it’s most likely the browser cache in combination with the server cache. Several browsers I have seen do not actually read load a page if they’ve just been there, but instead just serve it from cache. So even if you should get the proper version, you’re not because the browser never loads anything new after clearing cookies. It’s quite annoying actually, also for me. I’ll probably have to redo the entire mechanism, which is a lot of work.
voyager
Speaking of cats, Serbian and Croatian (and other connected languages) have an expression “okačiti mâčku o rep”, which literally translates to “hang (something) off of tomcat’s tail” and it has the same meaning.
I’ll have to ask my girlfriend from Bulgaria of they have this too. If Serbian has it, they might actually.
Jeffrey
Für die Katz was fun. I knew it but not the story behind it. With the hair pulling I understand the idiom but I found the definition a bit an den Haaren herbeigezogen and went with the effort one instead. It takes effort to stretch reality like that.
heideana
It’s funny how German expressions can highlight that dark German personality that my Freuden Martin is always telling me about as we compare Amerikan/Deutsche sagen.
The real curious thing to me, which is also maddening, is how translators/lessons/KI tools often gloss over the real meaning of a word or phrase. Sometimes at the expense of the original Authors meaning and »turn of a phrase«, sozusagen. This little quiz of yours definitely drives that point home…Viele danke und ciao—Hopkins Stanley
So I’m told. Yet somehow, the Nietzsche quote still sounds better, that is, somewhat more forceful in German. Thanks, Meghan!
xv
I knew Saftladen from collegues, which i always find funny, the others i didn’t.
In terms of whats working I haven’t had any major issues recently what i would love to work one day is “my vocabularly” which now shows me only 3 words (it used to show more, but then still only like 20-30)
Done! I have no idea why this was set to “3”, actually. I really need to clean up that page. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Should I print a base list first with just the links maybe? Or have a floating list on the side and when you click the page scrolls you to the entry?
Wow dreams can come true!! Thats awesome. From (he)rausbekommen / abbinden to zufolge. All on one page! And i can see my own notes to. Wie Cool!
I do like i can see your usage notes as well as my own notes though, i think hiding these (which presumably list only would do ) would be a downgrade for me.
I was thinking more like an overview list where you can see all your words quickly, and then the card list below that. I imagine an overview over all you have might be good to have without scrolling hundreds of entries, but of course you will have the option to just scroll through like now. The custom notes you can add to each meaning are kind of the key thing that sets my system apart from other dictionaries and systems where you can (if at all) only add note per word, no per meaning. And these notes are crucial for memorizing since it’s basically you making a reminder to self. So yeah, they must be visible, of course.
I think having the option of both views would be nice. But yeah, I’m really happy, this is huge improvement for me.
I just had an idea actually. Could you know you can make examples blurry when reading articles ? Could you have the option to make the definitions blurry on this page? Then you could kind of turn them into basic flashcards?
I like the idea of a list at the top where you can click on the words. Or maybe an alphabet where you can click on “a” and go to the ones that start with “a” and so on. Something like that would make it so you could still easily find what you want in the menu/list, even if you have a lot of cards.
Yeah, that’s also a nice idea. Filters in general. I’ll definitely add more features to that page over time.
Elsa
Hallo, I love these articles, the only idiom I knew was “von gestern”! A few typos: “How did go?” (How did it go?) Q1: “that’s doesn’t work” (that doesn’t work) and “The origin of the idiom are in Berlin” (The origins of the idiom are in Berlin)
Bis bald :)
kevh
With a similar meaning to the wine in bottles saying, in English we also say “Mutton dressed as Lamb” or “Schaf in Lammkleidung” which should not be confused with “A wolf in lamb’s clothing” or “Ein Wolf im Schafspelz”. Are either of these also German sayings?
I’m guessing it’s more or less identical to “alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen” – something old presented as something new (in a negative way). I don’t know that I’ve heard it personally. We Americans don’t tend to use as many sheep-related expressions as our British Commonwealth cousins…
That said, my guess is that the “dressed as” in the expression isn’t best translated with “im Lammspelz” or the like – “mutton” pretty much always refers to the meat rather than the animal, so I think “dressed” is used here in the sense of zubereitet, prepared and presented on the table as lamb even though it’s really the meat of an adult (therefore tougher) sheep.
It’s interesting – I’ve only ever seen Lamm or Lammfleisch in connection with food here. Probably the same in the US, where sheep are rarer and more expensive, so if you’re spending the money for it, it’s pretty much going to be lamb, not mutton. Dict.cc shows me Schaffleisch or Hammel[fleisch] for “mutton.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of those on a menu or otherwise in real life.
It’s a pretty well-used idiom in (at least) Australian English, and I imagine UK English as well, usually in the context of someone dressing themselves up to appear significantly younger than they actually are. So… an older gay guy out cruising wearing running shorts, a baseball cap to cover the loss of his feathers on top, sunglasses to mask the age lines around the eyes, an “of the moment” haircut, etc etc. Similarly for an older woman, but I’ll spare everyone the attempt to document this case in more detail. Essentially, the onlooker is pretty much fooled from a distance, but when they get close, or take a bite…
Excellent question! For me, it’s almost always about the dating/sexual_attractiveness angle, rather than trying to be cool/hip as per the pic. In essence, about making yourself seem more “delicious” than you actually are, as per the lamb versus mutton comparison.
As for the pic, I guess that just be labelled sad, tragic, pathetic, and definitely try_hard.
On a random note, lamb used to be super common as the basis of a weekday meal in Oz, (whether via a roast leg of lamb or just chops) but the price here has been stupendously high (on average) for quite some time now, so it’d definitely morphed into a “special occasion” sort of food these days for those watching their wallets. Mutton is relatively rare: even the word itself is a bit on the nose, so it’s a tough sell.
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We have the expression “tiré par les cheveux” in French, but we also have the amazing neologism “capillotracté”, derived from Latin
“capillotracté”… wow!!! I love it. Is that something I can use in daily life or will people look at me weird?
As for “an den Haaren herbeigezogen”, in Italian we have the same phrasing “tirato per i capelli” with the exact same “far-fetched” meaning
The phrase “nicht von gestern sein” is the same as “not being born yesterday.” You’ve been around, you know things, you’re not easy to fool.
So how would i actually use this in a sentence?
Is it as simple as: Ich bin nicht von gestern ?
Yeah, that’s the only way pretty much. Never as a question (Ist Thomas von gestern… NOPE!) or a side sentence, “Ich glaube, dass Thomas nicht von gestern ist…NOPE).
You use it to make a statement about someone.
hi, i got a sponsored membership from Emanuel and i would like to thank everyone who made this possible for me, Emanuel told me people donated for this and so Vielen Dank, Ich habe einen Job und ich habe 3 monate mehr deutsch zu lernen, Danke alle, bis 3 Monate.
Hi, I want to thank Emanuel first, and everyone in this community who contributed and made it possible for me to get free access to this German course. I’m really grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow.
Somebody pointed out that the “wine/wineskins” thing is from the Bible (Luke 5:37-39 is mentioned; there are parallel versions in Matthew 9:17 and Mark 2:22).
It’s interesting what ze Germans have done with it, because in the saying, Jesus is actually talking about new wine put in old wineskins – nobody would do that, because the new wine is still fermenting and would burst the more brittle leather – rather than the reverse.
It makes sense that it’s meant negatively, but knowing the origin made me think it might be positive, because Luke 5:39 adds the remark, “Und niemand, der vom alten Wein trinkt, will neuen; denn er spricht: Der alte ist milder” (Luther 1984). I guess Germans wouldn’t be inclined to agree. :)
I was just now trying to find out if there’s any information as to when the saying switched, but couldn’t find anything.
Story time: when I was in Finland for student exchange, we’d make our own beer. They were selling these brewing kits at the supermarket and we had a baby bath brewing in the kitchen at all times.
We bottled the beer into washed out bottles closing it with the cap closing device (also from the supermarket).
On one load, we decided to stir up the yeast in the bathtub and add it to the bottles AND also added some sugar so it would keep fermenting and have “more alcohol”.
It worked. But one bottle … well.. the cap exploded off and blew straight through a 2 cm think wooden shelf board. Clean shot through. So yeah… there is serious pressure going on with fermentation.
ashamed to admit I achieved a 2 out of 5 – but at least I got the cat one correct :)
That’s the one that catters… I mean matters.
:)
Great short quiz. Just the right length of for a quick German lesson.
And of course, being a veterinarian, I have to mention cats! Cats (felids) are the most beloved species, and the natural animal topic. Good job! [And if someone is snarky and has to say how much they hate cats, I challenge them not to be in awe of seeing a wild felid in nature.] I’ve been blessed to see bobcats, lynxes, cougars (a wee scary) in America, and lions and cheetahs in SA. They are all a-maz-ing.
Wow that sounds awesome!! The biggest I have to offer (apart from zoo lions et al) is a Maine coon in a cat cafe in poland. That was already quite impressive to me :)
Really like this series. Thanks.
Started doing the quiz. Went to cook lunch. Firefox unloaded the page during that time (as it should), and now I get this new “paywall”. I don’t think I have ever seen it before. I guess the normal safety tools (uBlock Origin, NoScript, etc) blocked the previous one.
Anyway, on to other free resources on the Internet.
Remember kids, we invented the internet to share knowledge for free!
You had the article for free, did you not?
If Firefox reloads, that is counted as a view.
You know… originally, this site was running on a pay what you can afford basis, and guess what… it is not sustainable. Some people do pay, most people who could, do not.
Without that paywall, none of this content here would exist because this has been my job for years now. It’s fine if you don’t want to pay, but I really don’t understand why you have to give me an attitude like that.
should say “haven’t” read anything
I can’t read the article as it keeps saying that Ive reached my limit of one article per week. However, I have read anything for several weeks as this is a recurring problem
Did you try what I describe in the newsletter (clearing cookies, copy pasting URL)?
Love the super amazing repetition system :)
me too!!! :-)
Even with copy/paste and deleting cookies I hit the paywall, and am pretty sure I have not entered the site already this week. (Just for your information)
The count is for 7 days, but if that doesn’t apply, then it’s most likely the browser cache in combination with the server cache. Several browsers I have seen do not actually read load a page if they’ve just been there, but instead just serve it from cache. So even if you should get the proper version, you’re not because the browser never loads anything new after clearing cookies. It’s quite annoying actually, also for me. I’ll probably have to redo the entire mechanism, which is a lot of work.
Speaking of cats, Serbian and Croatian (and other connected languages) have an expression “okačiti mâčku o rep”, which literally translates to “hang (something) off of tomcat’s tail” and it has the same meaning.
I’ll have to ask my girlfriend from Bulgaria of they have this too. If Serbian has it, they might actually.
Für die Katz was fun. I knew it but not the story behind it. With the hair pulling I understand the idiom but I found the definition a bit an den Haaren herbeigezogen and went with the effort one instead. It takes effort to stretch reality like that.
It’s funny how German expressions can highlight that dark German personality that my Freuden Martin is always telling me about as we compare Amerikan/Deutsche sagen.
The real curious thing to me, which is also maddening, is how translators/lessons/KI tools often gloss over the real meaning of a word or phrase. Sometimes at the expense of the original Authors meaning and »turn of a phrase«, sozusagen. This little quiz of yours definitely drives that point home…Viele danke und ciao—Hopkins Stanley
Spot on, heideana!
Compare for example the German with its nearest English language equivalent:
Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich staerker = Live dangerously
Durch Schaden wird man klug = Experience is the best teacher
Die Hoffnung stirbt immer zuletzt = Hope springs eternal
And there are countless others:-)
‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ is a common expression in English too!
So I’m told. Yet somehow, the Nietzsche quote still sounds better, that is, somewhat more forceful in German.
Thanks, Meghan!
I knew Saftladen from collegues, which i always find funny, the others i didn’t.
In terms of whats working I haven’t had any major issues recently what i would love to work one day is “my vocabularly” which now shows me only 3 words (it used to show more, but then still only like 20-30)
“Saftladen” for me in German means a penny anti outfit or badly run, embarrassingly insignificant business, for instance:
“WASSS?? Zwei Monate hat’s gedauert, bis du bezahlt warst??! Was fuer ein Saftladen ist das denn?
Done!
I have no idea why this was set to “3”, actually.
I really need to clean up that page. If you have any suggestions, let me know. Should I print a base list first with just the links maybe? Or have a floating list on the side and when you click the page scrolls you to the entry?
Wow dreams can come true!! Thats awesome. From (he)rausbekommen / abbinden to zufolge. All on one page! And i can see my own notes to. Wie Cool!
I do like i can see your usage notes as well as my own notes though, i think hiding these (which presumably list only would do ) would be a downgrade for me.
I was thinking more like an overview list where you can see all your words quickly, and then the card list below that. I imagine an overview over all you have might be good to have without scrolling hundreds of entries, but of course you will have the option to just scroll through like now.
The custom notes you can add to each meaning are kind of the key thing that sets my system apart from other dictionaries and systems where you can (if at all) only add note per word, no per meaning. And these notes are crucial for memorizing since it’s basically you making a reminder to self. So yeah, they must be visible, of course.
I think having the option of both views would be nice.
But yeah, I’m really happy, this is huge improvement for me.
I just had an idea actually. Could you know you can make examples blurry when reading articles ? Could you have the option to make the definitions blurry on this page? Then you could kind of turn them into basic flashcards?
oh and yeah, I’m using the custom notes too, like this feature
I like the idea of a list at the top where you can click on the words. Or maybe an alphabet where you can click on “a” and go to the ones that start with “a” and so on. Something like that would make it so you could still easily find what you want in the menu/list, even if you have a lot of cards.
Yeah, that’s also a nice idea. Filters in general. I’ll definitely add more features to that page over time.
Hallo,
I love these articles, the only idiom I knew was “von gestern”!
A few typos:
“How did go?” (How did it go?)
Q1: “that’s doesn’t work” (that doesn’t work) and “The origin of the idiom are in Berlin” (The origins of the idiom are in Berlin)
Bis bald :)
With a similar meaning to the wine in bottles saying, in English we also say “Mutton dressed as Lamb” or “Schaf in Lammkleidung” which should not be confused with “A wolf in lamb’s clothing” or “Ein Wolf im Schafspelz”.
Are either of these also German sayings?
We definitely have “Wolf im Schafspelz”, but I don’t think we have the other one.
What does that mean, actually?
I’m guessing it’s more or less identical to “alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen” – something old presented as something new (in a negative way). I don’t know that I’ve heard it personally. We Americans don’t tend to use as many sheep-related expressions as our British Commonwealth cousins…
That said, my guess is that the “dressed as” in the expression isn’t best translated with “im Lammspelz” or the like – “mutton” pretty much always refers to the meat rather than the animal, so I think “dressed” is used here in the sense of zubereitet, prepared and presented on the table as lamb even though it’s really the meat of an adult (therefore tougher) sheep.
Oh LOL!!! I didn’t catch that AT ALL.
I guess then it should be
– Schaf als Lamm verkaufen
Or something like that. Actually, that kind of has a ring to it.
It’s interesting – I’ve only ever seen Lamm or Lammfleisch in connection with food here. Probably the same in the US, where sheep are rarer and more expensive, so if you’re spending the money for it, it’s pretty much going to be lamb, not mutton. Dict.cc shows me Schaffleisch or Hammel[fleisch] for “mutton.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of those on a menu or otherwise in real life.
It’s a pretty well-used idiom in (at least) Australian English, and I imagine UK English as well, usually in the context of someone dressing themselves up to appear significantly younger than they actually are. So… an older gay guy out cruising wearing running shorts, a baseball cap to cover the loss of his feathers on top, sunglasses to mask the age lines around the eyes, an “of the moment” haircut, etc etc. Similarly for an older woman, but I’ll spare everyone the attempt to document this case in more detail. Essentially, the onlooker is pretty much fooled from a distance, but when they get close, or take a bite…
Is it just used in the context of dating and hooking up though or can it also be more boringly just this:
Excellent question! For me, it’s almost always about the dating/sexual_attractiveness angle, rather than trying to be cool/hip as per the pic. In essence, about making yourself seem more “delicious” than you actually are, as per the lamb versus mutton comparison.
As for the pic, I guess that just be labelled sad, tragic, pathetic, and definitely try_hard.
On a random note, lamb used to be super common as the basis of a weekday meal in Oz, (whether via a roast leg of lamb or just chops) but the price here has been stupendously high (on average) for quite some time now, so it’d definitely morphed into a “special occasion” sort of food these days for those watching their wallets. Mutton is relatively rare: even the word itself is a bit on the nose, so it’s a tough sell.