roughshod » roughshot
Spotted in the wild:
- Middle class America did show this nation that the corporations and the wealthy in this country should no longer run roughshot, and legally outspend to purchase innocence. However, what will the ‘official Christian perspective’ say? (link)
- Uh dude!!!! Ashcroft is not riding roughshot over state anything. Ashcroft is perfectly within his rights to order his subordinates (US Attorneys) to seek the death penalty. (TalkLeft, comment)
- Faculty above the law? Administrators running roughshot over common sense rules? Libby thinks not! (Gettysburg College, Library pages)
- The island from which Japanese fighters were able to run roughshot over Allied bombers on their way to Japan, now served as a safe haven for wounded planes returning from combat, saving (astonishingly) many more American lives than were cost in the battle. (link)
299 Google hits for _run roughshot_ and 99 hits for _ride roughshot_.
AHD4 defines _roughshod_:
> ADJECTIVE: 1. Shod with horseshoes having projecting nails or points to prevent slipping. 2. Marked by brutal force: Stalin’s roughshod treatment of the kulaks.
> IDIOM: _ride roughshod over_ To treat with brutal force: a manager who rode roughshod over all opposition.
1
Commentary by Brad Rich , 2005/03/04 at 6:11 pm
I’ve heard the use of the phrase “waiting for the other (should be: the last)
shoe to drop”
and the context shows that the metaphor is not understood. This phrase
refers to riding a horse through the desert and three shoes have already
dropped, the horse is nearly lame, and when the last shoe drops, the horse
will not be able to go any further. It’s a beautiful metaphor for some
situations, but people use it to describe a moment of anticipation or
terror that is completely inappropriate. And the peave is: they think
there are only two shoes. I guess they don’t know about a horse having
four shoes.