Skip to main content

Can't walk in the tall grass

Idiom

Etymology:

Of Native American origin it describes the inability of a person to successfully walk through tall grass. Before colonization the great plains of North American were covered with large sections of tall grasses. Instead of going around acres of tall grass, people could walk straight through them.

The implication is that a capable adult is both tall enough to see above shoulder height tall grass and wise enough to navigate and form a path through tall grass that is above their head. Children and people that are not intelligent will get lost in the tall grass and need help to get out or even die.

Usually applied to a person, but could apply to a thing.

Similar to: If you can't handle the heat get out of the kitchen, shape up or ship out

1: transitive, present tense

a: Describing a person that cannot handle the situation they are in.

b: Describing a person that is not intelligent enough to figure out something that others easily can.

2: rhetorical question

Implying that the person being asked is not keeping up with the group or not able to handle the task they were given.
1a: "Jim can't walk in the tall grass. He got promoted to sergeant and just took a month long stress leave"

1b: "I've been training the new hire for a week now and she still can't figure out how to clock in.....she can't walk in the tall grass."

2: "Hey Ron, Jim was late and installed the wiring for 2 rooms today but you were here all day and barely got half of one done. Can't walk in the tall grass?"

girl grip 

The ability girls and women have developed to hold several items at once in one hand. The skill has been developed due to the lack of pockets in women's clothing.
I thought she'd need multiple trips to carry her phone, keys, wallet, and Starbucks to her car since she needed the other hand to open the door, but she used her impressive girl grip to carry everything in one hand.
girl grip by SillyMilly33 July 31, 2023
Word of the Day on July 21, 2026

Condiment home

A term that refers to one persons household hold nothing but ingredients and condiments in the kitchen area
Person A: Hey dude you got some snacks?
Person B: Nah, i live in a fucking condiment home...
Word of the Day on July 20, 2026

bang a you-ee 

of Massachusetts orig. "to make a u-turn"
hey, we missed the bar, bang a you-ee
Word of the Day on July 19, 2026
The word 'flag' as pronounced by people with thick Belfast accents. The term is a perfect encapsulation of the disproportionate and overblown reaction to the removal of the Union Jack (as in 'de fleg') from above City Hall in Belfast. Where previously it had flown for 365 days per year, it is now flown on 17 designated days of the year - in line with many other British cities.

The event caused a portion of the Protestant community ('fleggers') to make international pricks of themselves as they proceeded to wreck the fucking place, claiming it was another erosion of a 'British' identity they perceive to have been under attack since the horrifying spectre of equality reared its head in Northern Ireland.

The word 'fleg' - and indeed 'fleggers' - fittingly describes a section of humanity unconcerned with knowledge, reality or the vagaries of the English language. Like America's tea-baggers they are ruled by instinct, fear and paranoia with a side dish of rampant bigotry and startling ignorance of the world around them.
"Wat de fuck like! The taigs got de fleg took down! Let's wreck de fuckin place! No surrender!"

"De fleg has been took down! Before ye know it there'll be a united Ireland! Attack Short Strand! God Save The Queen!"
Fleg by OnionFleg August 9, 2013
Word of the Day on July 18, 2026
To take something small, that doesn't quite qualify as a theft. Probably from the Danish "skæv" or the Dutch "scheef", both of which are pronounced similarly, meaning "askew, or not quite right'. To change an item's ownership without permission, but only something small and of little worth.
"I skeefed an apple off the neighbor's tree." "I skeefed some chips outta your bag when you looked away." "Don't skeef my chair when I go to the bathroom."
Skeef by kachinaflonk July 16, 2026
Word of the Day on July 17, 2026