inappropriateness

See Also: BELONGING

1. (I) belonged … like a pearl onion on a banana split —Raymond Chandler
2. Belonged … like a virgin in a brothel —William Mcllvanney
3. Belong like a right shoe on a left foot —Elyse Sommer
4. Belong like a white poodle on a coal barge —Arthur Baer
5. Feeling like a Boston schoolteacher in Dodge City —Mary Gordon
6. (I) feel [out of place] like Babe Paley at a bar mitzvah in the Bronx —Sue Mengers, talent agent, quoted by Rex Reed
7. Felt like a gap —D. H. Lawrence
8. Fits in about as well as a bird-of-paradise among wrens —Leslie Bennetts, about character in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, New York Times, 1985
9. Had about as much business teaching in college as a duck has riding a bicycle —Richard Ford

   See Also: ABSURDITY

10. Inappropriate as a Size 20 Cinderella —Mike Sommer
11. Inappropriate as running shoes with a cocktail dress —Anon
12. It’s like a thoroughbred horse pulling a milk wagon —line from movie, The Eagle Has Landed
13. Looked like a greyhound puppy in a litter of collies —Michael Gilbert
14. A man without a place to be … that’s like being alone at sea without a log to hang on —William H. Gass
15. Misplaced … like a dog in church —Anon
16. Misplaced … like a fish out of water —English phrase

    Borrowed by the English from the Greek, the simile has been much used and adapted since the fourteenth century.

17. Never fit right, like a pair of cheap shoes that sprouts a nail in the sole —Marge Piercy
18. (Looked as) out of place as a chicken in church —James Crumley
19. Out of place as matzo balls in clam chowder —Elyse Sommer
20. Out of place as a house boat on the high seas —Anon
21. Out of place as an atheist in a seminary —Anon
22. Out of place as a Presbyterian in Hell —Mark Twain
23. Out of place as some rare tropical bird —Anon
24. Out of place … like an old whale stranded on the beach —George Garrett
25. (Harriet always seemed a little) out of things, like somebody’s mother —Mary McCarthy
26. She was like something wrecked and cast up on the wrong shore —Elizabeth Bowen
27. Sticking out like a solitary violet in a bed of primroses —Tess Slesinger

carry coals to Newcastle To bring something to a place where it is naturally abundant; hence, to do something wholly superfluous or unnecessary. Newcastle lies in the heart of England’s great coal-mining region. The equivalent French expression is porterde Veau à la rivière ‘carry water to the river.’

caviar to the general Something too sophisticated or subtle to be appreciated by hoi-polloi; beyond the taste of the general public. This expression derives from Shakespeare’s Hamlet:

In this line, “general” refers to the general public, the common people. Caviar, of course, is the very expensive gustatory delicacy prepared from sturgeon roe. It is a food appreciated only by those who have acquired a taste for it.

send owls to Athens To do something completely useless, unnecessary, or extraneous; to carry coals to Newcastle; also to carry owls to Athens.

The owl, as emblem of the Greek goddess Athena, patron of Athens, was naturally plentiful in that area.