Meaning: Common sense, able to stand the test of reasonableness.
Example: If your going to spend your time working anyway, it only makes horse sense to get a high paying job.
Origin: Horses are intelligent animals. They demonstrate the ability act sensibly and to avoid situations that might cause them harm such as taking a fall, hence good common sense.
Example: If you would only pay the bills on time, everything would be hunky dory.
Origin: Huncho-dori was a major street in Yokohama that was frequented by American sailors on leave during W.W.I. To be in Huncho-dori was to be enjoying leisure activities, and having a good time.
Alternatively, The archaic English word "hunk" meant "goal" and is probably derived from the Dutch "honk" also meaning "goal". To have reached one's goal is to be satisfied and happy.
Meaning: The accomplishment of three successes or wins.
Example: Pam has pulled off a hat trick, three divorces, three big settlements.
Origin: "Hat trick" originated from the English game of Cricket. The term originally referred to a bowler retiring three consecutive batsman with three consecutive balls.
This is roughly equivalent to a pitcher in baseball striking out three consecutive batters using only three pitches to each! This was considered quite an accomplishment and was traditionally rewarded with a hat.
The term is now used for other sports, always referring to an accomplishment of three. A popular use today is three goals by a single player in one game of hockey or soccer.
Alternatively, Comes from the days when it was common for men (and women for that manner) to wear hats to social events, and in Canada a hockey game is a social event. If a player scored three goals in one game, appreciative fans would throw their hats onto the ice.
Meaning: To hold one accountable for a commitment, make good on a promise.
Example: You made a fair bet with me on the Superbowl and I am going to hold your feet to the fire for payment.
Origin: Pertains to torture used during the Crusade's. As a method for extracting confession for heresy, non-believers were positioned in a manner that allowed the inquisitor to apply flames to the feet of the accused. This was done until the accused confessed or died.
As ridiculous as that method of obtaining a confession seems by today's standards, consider a modern parallel - plea bargaining. The accused is offered the choice between a reduced sentence in exchange for a confession, or prosecution with the risk of more severe penalty (possibly death).
Example: I looked all over hell's half acre trying to find a left handed monkey wrench.
Origin: Hell's half acre is a lava flow about 15 miles west of Idaho Falls, Idaho. It is 4.5 miles of rough, irregular terrain that is very difficult to navigate. It is so named because its cracks, holes, and crags give the area an otherworldly, surreal, and perhaps hellish appearance. A search of Hell's half acre would indeed be a long and difficult task.
Many of the scenes in the 1997 film "Starship Troopers" (based on Robert Heinlein's novel of the same name) in which the characters were on an alien planet, were filmed at Hell's half acre.
