Flying by the seat of your pants
| Meaning: | To do something without planning, to change course midstream, to figure things out as you go. |
| Example: | Most stock investors are not making educated decisions, they are just flying by the seat of their pants. |
| Origin: | Before airplanes had sophisticated instruments and flight control systems, and even today, planes are piloted by feel. Pilots can feel the reactions of the plane in response to their actions at the controls. Being the largest point of contact between pilot and plane, most of the feel or feedback comes through the seat of the pants. If you are “flying by the seat of your pants” your are responding to the feedback received. |
Pushing the envelope
| Meaning: | To approach or exceed known performance boundaries. |
| Example: | Your performance at work is not exactly pushing the envelope. |
| Origin: | This expression comes out of the US Air Force test pilot program of the late 1940’s. The envelope refers to a plane’s performance capabilities. The limits of the planes ability to fly at speeds and altitudes and under certain stresses define what is known as its performance envelope. It’s an “envelope” in the sense that it contains the ranges of the plane’s abilities. “Pushing the envelope” originally meant flying an aircraft at, or even beyond, its known or recommended limits. Thanks to Kensmark A safe bet is that many who pushed the envelope crashed. The expression was popularized by Tom Wolfe in his book “The right stuff” (1979) and later the movie of the same name. |
Passed with flying colours
| Meaning: | To exceed expectations, to do better than expected. |
| Example: | The
California smog test is tough, but my car passed with flying colours. |
| Origin: | Colour(s) has numerous meanings. An early use of the word is flag, pennant, or badge. “Passed with flying colours” comes from sailing ships that, when passing other ships at sea, would fly their colours (flags) if they wanted to be identified. Alternatively, A metaphor drawn from parades, which do not merely pass, but rather do so with flags raised, “with flying colours.” |
