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allusions
ap lang
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Achilles Heel | Greek mythology, a person’s weakness or vulnerability |
| Sacred Cow | Hinduism, something protected from criticism or change |
| Crocodile Tears | ancient belief about crocodiles, fake or insincere sympathy |
| Read the Riot Act | English law, give a strict warning to stop bad behavior |
| Ivory Tower | French literature, being isolated and out of touch with reality |
| All that Glitters is Not Gold | Latin proverb, appearances can be deceptive |
| 30 Pieces of Silver/Betrayed with a kiss | Bible, payment for betrayal or betrayal by someone trusted |
| Tabula Rasa | Latin/John Locke, a blank slate uninfluenced by experience |
| Waterloo | Battle of Waterloo, a decisive or final defeat |
| Icarus/Fly too close to the sun | Greek mythology, failure caused by overconfidence or excessive ambition |
| Sword of Damocles | Greek legend, awareness of an approaching danger |
| Fiddle while Rome burns | Roman legend, ignoring a crisis while it happens |
| Loaves and Fishes | Bible, unexpected abundance despite scarcity |
| A chip on one’s shoulder | old fighting challenge, resentment or readiness for conflict |
| 15 minutes of fame | Andy Warhol, brief period of public attention |
| Let the cat out of the bag/Buy a pig in a poke | medieval marketplace, reveal a secret / buy something without knowing its true value |
| Catch-22 | Joseph Heller novel, impossible no-win situation |
| Stealing someone’s thunder | John Dennis play, taking another person’s idea or attention |
| Throw down the gauntlet | medieval knights, issue a challenge |
| Pollyanna | Eleanor Porter stories, overly optimistic person |
| Bedlam | London mental hospital, chaos and disorder |
| Albatross around one’s neck | “Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” ongoing burden or problem |
| Don Quixote/Quixotic/Tilting at windmills | Cervantes novel, foolishly idealistic or unrealistic efforts |
| Benedict Arnold | American Revolution, traitor |
| Sisyphus/Sisyphean | Greek mythology, endless and possibly pointless work |
| Sour grapes | Aesop’s fable, pretending something unwanted was never valuable |
| Muckrakers | Progressive Era journalism, investigative reporters exposing corruption |
| Pass the buck | idiom, avoid responsibility by giving it to someone else |
| Holy Grail | Arthurian legend, something highly desired or difficult to achieve |
| Freudian slip | Sigmund Freud, accidental mistake revealing hidden thoughts |
| Murphy’s law | 1940s saying, if something can go wrong it will |
| Doublespeak | George Orwell’s 1984, misleading or ambiguous language |
| Over a barrel | historical phrase, being trapped and forced to comply |
| Nemesis | Greek mythology, a person or thing causing someone’s downfall |
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