Idioms: alive and kicking

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Idiom(s) of the day: alive and kicking

Variation(s):

My category (Russian-to-English translation): Информация (Information)

Explanation(s):

Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):

If you say that something or someone is alive and kicking, you are emphasizing that they are still active or still exist, even though a lot of people might have expected them to have stopped or disappeared a long time ago.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

prevalent and very active

very active, healthy or popular

(of a person) active and in good health

Very active; vigorous; full of energy.

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

alive and well, living and breathing, alive

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

Translation(s):

CCDI:

Жив-здоров, цел и невредим; жив курилка!

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

живой и здоровый; живой, существующий

полон жизни

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

живём кашу жуем

Multilex (www.multilex.ru):

Examples:

CCDI:

‘I was passing by some teenagers the other day. I heard one of them say “I thought he was dead.” I imagine a lot of people think that. But believe me I’m alive and kicking and still going strong.’

Romance is still alive and kicking for a couple who will be celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary this week.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

The old rascal is still very much alive and kicking. — Этот старый хрыч всё ещё жив-здоров.

The sport is still very much alive and kicking in this country. — Тем не менее, в нашей стране у этого вида спорта немало приверженцев.

Charles: "I suppose if I died you'd cry a bit. That would be nice of you and very proper. But I'm all alive and kicking. Don't you find me rather a nuisance?" (W. S. Maugham, ‘The Bread-Winner’, sc. 2) — Чарльз: "Если бы я умер, то вы, конечно, поплакали бы немножко. Это было бы так мило с вашей стороны и так уместно. Но я, как видите, в добром здравии. А что, я, кажется, очень надоел вам?" A man's got to keep himself all alive and kicking, or where would his business be? (J. B. Priestley, ‘The Doomsday Men’, ch. 2) — Человек должен быть здоров, бодр и полон сил, иначе кто будет заниматься его делами?

Is your uncle still alive and kicking? — Твой дядя все еще жив-здоров?

bigotry is still alive and kicking

Grandpa was taken to the hospital with pneumonia, but he was discharged yesterday and is alive and kicking.

still alive and kicking at 75 years

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:

indubitably alive; very lively and active.

1840 New Monthly Mag. LVIII. 497 He is (as the Irishman says), ‘alive and kicking’. 1860 Grandmother's Money I. 124 So I started off to Stamford Street, just to shew that I was alive and kicking. 1930 R. Lehmann Note in Music 130 He seemed to imply with amusement how particularly alive they were. ‘Father, mother, two young brothers, and sister Clare, all alive and kicking.’ 1966 L. Southworth Felon in Disguise xi. 158 I'd feel happier if I knew Donaldson was alive and kicking.

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): alive and kicking, total 26

British visitors heading off the beaten track in the States will find the adventurous spirit of the frontiersmen alive and kicking.

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): alive and kicking, total 75

When I was alive and kicking, I wrote a string of books.

His nomination is alive and kicking.

One of them has a mean-looking wild boar head on it Calvin says is a giant pig living in a swamp that's been known to eat up a little girl alive and kicking.

If he would have let the audit committee work and honored the result, we would know today, but sadly he stopped it, which is why the suspicions are still alive and kicking.

What he underestimates, and what many discouraged friends of federalism have yet to discover, is a resilient strain in local politics that remains alive and kicking.

Thanks to the advent of new drugs, HIV is one of the rare, fatal infectious diseases that can now exist in people who are largely healthy, potentially creating thousands of Typhoid Marys to keep the virus alive and kicking in new victims.

Everybody and his brother is determined to keep his memory alive and kicking forever.

There are scoundrels who lie brazenly and flatter the powers that be (and sometimes the power is in the hands of the masses) shamelessly in order to obtain important posts and dachas on the Black Sea. But Russian literature is alive and kicking, and not only in the samizdat. Except that Russian literature is written between the lines. Even the lines themselves are written in code. And the need to write in code sometimes makes for an extra-special brilliance. And those who are not endowed with sharp eyes and ears neither hear nor see. In Russia, I said, even children's fairytales are full of dynamite. (Bone to the Bone by Nathan Shaham)

My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid):

As minutes away are ticking

And through my mind I’m flicking

Of past mementoes picking,

In living memory sticking,

They’re kept alive and kicking.