Colloquialisms rarely announce themselves; they slip into sentences wearing work boots and faded jackets, and are already comfortably broken in.

Writers use them because they sound human, readers accept them because they feel familiar, but familiarity, as the expression goes, comes with a cost. Some phrases have been used so much that they have been rubbed as smooth as the Blarney Stone from overuse, drained of texture by repetition and reduced to verbal placeholders.

Language doesn't fail when people repeat things; it fails when people stop thinking about it.

What follows isn't a glossary or something intended for display; it's simply a working map of expressions that came from real places, by honest labor, real danger, and habits. Some deserve a rest, while others keep earning their keep. A few belong to a specific region or generation and lose force when lifted out of context.