Saturday, March 24, 2012

phrases - Euphemism for "There's more than one way to skin a cat"




Growing up in the 80s, I ended up hearing/using this phrase a lot whenever I wanted to express that there was more than one way to do something: "there's more than one way to skin a cat."



I have recently been in situations where I need to express the same thing, but am realizing that the phrase is actually quite grotesque. Is there a well-known euphemism to express the same thing - that there is more than one way to get something done?



This questions is slightly related, but only asks for the origins: Origin of the phrase, "There's more than one way to skin a cat."


Answer



If you don't like the graphic reference to feline taxidermy, you can substitute just about any verb-noun pair to get your point across, so long as your audience can imagine more than one way to do it. These aren't common idioms by any means (some of them will register a tiny number of hits in a Google book search, and others won't), but one could say:




There's more than one way to bake a cake...
There's more than one way to cook an egg...
There's more than one way to peel an orange...
There's more than one way to make a bed...
There's more than one way to catch a rabbit...
There's more than one way to shear a sheep...
There's more than one way to shoe a horse...
There's more than one way to shine a penny...
There's more than one way to knit a sweater...
There's more than one way to dive into a pool...
There's more than one way to shake a carbuncle
...1








1 That last one may sound a bit odd, but I actually found it in a book.


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