Meaning: To gain approval from another, usually a superior.
Example: Bringing home flowers is a good way to win brownie points with the wife.
Origin: Browine is a house spirit in Scottish superstition. In England he is called Robin Goodfellow. His favorite abodes are farms, and at night he is said to busy himself doing little jobs for the family over which he presides. Although he was never seen, families often left offerings to show their thanks.
Browine points refers to a person who does good deed for another and is looked upon favorably...gaining "bonus points".
Brownies is club for young girls, not yet old enough to be Girl Scouts or Girl Guides in England. Brownies are awarded points for good behavior and achievements.
Meaning: Fighting pointless battles or imaginary enemies, with conviction.
Example: She wastes her efforts battling windmills, trying to get her husband to put the cap on the toothpaste, and put the seat down.
Origin: A reference to the book "Don Quixote", in which the hero delusionally thinks that windmills are dragons that he must slay. Sometimes heard as "tilting at windmills".
Example: He is caught between a rock and a hard place. He can stay in a bad marriage, or pay alimony.
Origin: A reference to Odysseus' dilemma of passing between Scylla and Charybdis (figuratively a rock and a hard place). Scylla was a monster on the cliffs and Charydbis was a dangerous whirlpool. Neither fate was more attractive as both were difficult to overcome.
Meaning: A person or place that has the potential to enrich.
Example: When her boss says jump, she says "how high", only because she knows where her bread is buttered.
Origin: The actual phrase is "knows which side her bread is buttered on." It is a reference to a Yiddish folk tale of the Wise men of Chelm.
In the tale, Chelm was a city in Poland where the people were incredibly stupid. One day someone dropped a piece of bread; it landed butter side up! Experience and Murphy's law tells us bread always falls buttered side down, the wise men of Chelm gathered to ponder why the bread landed buttered side up.
After a week the verdict was that the bread had been buttered on the wrong side.
Alternatively,
Dry bread can be pretty boring to eat. Bread is much tastier with some kind of spread - butter, jam, etc. Hence the person or place that provides your spread can enrich the bread eating experience.
Origin: A reference to Odysseus' dilemma of passing between Scylla and Charybdis (figuratively a rock and a hard place). Scylla was a monster on the cliffs and Charydbis was a dangerous whirlpool. Neither fate was more attractive as both were difficult to overcome.
Meaning: Unacceptable, outside agreed standards of decency.
Example: Nixon's handling of the Watergate scandal was beyond the pale for a President.
Origin: The "pale" derives from paling which means fence. Fences are erected to define boundaries. To be "beyond the pale" implies that one is outside of defined boundaries.
Similar to fences are walls. In the days when walled cities were common in Europe people who behaved unacceptably were sometimes exiled or banished from the community and sent to live outside the walls.
More particularly, the "pale" was a fence around the English controlled part of Ireland around Dublin. Beyond the Pale was how the English referred to the badlands outside English control.
