Pairs #19

Milk and cereal. A popular breakfast or snack food pairing.

Rough and tumble. 1. Active, vigorous and rough, with the possibility of harm. 2. Highly competitive.

Flesh and blood. One's family, or a member of one's family.

Heaven and earth. A pair usually found preceded by some form of the verb “move.” The idiomatic expression “move heaven and earth” means to do whatever is necessary, including extreme or unusual actions; to go to extremes.

To have and to hold. (law) to possess (property) for life. Most commonly used today in the context of traditional wedding vows.

Comings and goings. A general bustle of activity.

Shoes and socks. Clothing items worn to protect the feet.

Bits and bobs. A random assortment of things; small remaining pieces and items.

Hills and valleys. (euphemistic) Female anatomy.

Wet and wild. (slang) Talking nonsense. (vulgar, slang) Sexually promiscuous and hedonistic. (as Wet 'n Wild, Wet'n'Wild, Wet N Wild and other variations) The name (in full or in part) of various US water parks. (as wet n wild®) A brand of budget cosmetics.

Big and small. Of varying sizes. (as Big & Small) A British children’s TV series (2008-2011).

Short and stout. Vertically challenged but powerfully built.

Noughts and crosses. The British English name for tic-tac-toe.

Shot and shell. Gunfire and cannon fire. (See stanza III of Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

Shirt and tie. A men’s dress code requiring a dress shirt and a tie, but not necessarily a coat or jacket.

Cloak and dagger. A fighting style common in the Renaissance, involving a knife hidden beneath a cloak. (by extension, metaphorically) Situations involving intrigue, secrecy, espionage, or mystery.

Mix and match. To vary elements to make compatible combinations.

High and dry. Left out of water, stranded on a beach, or in the stocks for repair, or in dry dock. (idiomatic, by extension ) Abandoned, stranded, helpless.

Piss and moan. (vulgar, idiomatic, derogatory) To complain, especially needlessly and loudly.

Black-and-white. Visual media that combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of gray. As “black and white”: (US, slang, law enforcement) A police patrol car. (figuratively, idiomatic) Easily divided into diametrically opposing camps or schools of thought. The idiomatic expression “in black and white” means “in writing or in print, and regarded as more reliable, credible, or formal than by word of mouth.”

Loud and clear. In a clear and easily understandable manner.

Fore and aft. (nautical) From the bow of a ship to the stern; lengthwise.

Come and go. 1. To alternately enter and exit, arrive and depart (either physically or figuratively). 2. To repeatedly appear and disappear; to be transient.

Now and then. (idiomatic) Sometimes; occasionally; intermittently.