Play "Origin"

Since we've concluded Bible Trivia, I thought it would be enjoyable to play this with my online friends. Here's how it will (hopefully) work.

I will provide common phrases and their meanings. For example:

"Get off your high horse" Meaning: Quit behaving arrogantly.

Then you'll try to do either of these two things:

1. If you think you know the origin, try to explain it.
2. Or try to write a convincing origin that would fool others.

* It is important that you e-mail me all your attempts at explaining the origin or making up an etymology for the phrase: vesperstar@hotmail.com. That way I can present all answers as authoritative. Otherwise, it would be impossible to trick others because everyone will obviously see who wrote it.

Here is the answer for the above example:

"Get off your high horse"
"Origin: Based on a 14th century English tradition where royalty led parades on horseback as a sign of their importance."

Try to include specific details and historical background in your responses to make them as convincing as possible. Ok, here are 10 phrases:

Eat humble pie Meaning: To admit being wrong.
Buy the farm Meaning: To die.
Clean as a whistle Meaning: Very clean.
Fly-by-night Meaning: Unreliable.
Devil's advocate Meaning: A person who argues just for the sake of arguing.
Bite off more than you can chew Meaning: To attempt more than one can manage.
Hit the sack Meaning: To go to bed.
Cut to the chase Meaning: Get to the point.
Gum up the works Meaning: Jam something up.
Eat crow Meaning: To be humbled.

E-mail your attempts to answer these or fool others to vesperstar@hotmail.com. I'll post them, and you'll have the opportunity to vote on what you think is the real answer.

Points will be awarded as follows:

2 points to a player for each vote received for his or her answer.
1 point is given to a player for an answer that was close to the origin.
1 point is given to each player correctly guessing the official answer.

So, you can see, tricking people into voting for your answer and then correctly identifying the official answer is the way to get the most points!

Good luck, game on! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions. I'll look forward to getting your answers!