kill an elephant—do smth. to excess; overdo things:
- Tagua palm is also called natural ivory. We found tagua all over the place and you don’t have to kill an elephant for it!
Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase kill the rabbit—
1. (dated euph.) get a positive test result from an old-fashioned pregnancy test:
- Back in my mom’s day … there was “the rabbit test.” If a woman was pregnant, it was said that she “killed the rabbit.”
2. (Aviation) turn down the intensity of the approach lights:
- If you ever hear “kill the rabbit” while listening to air traffic control, the pilot is asking the controller to turn off the strobe lights.
shoot the bull—(U.S. sl.) engage in idle chat:
- It was raining, so everybody spent the day indoors drinking beer and shooting the bull.