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Gulliver’s Travels vocabulary
1 idioms used
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out of one's element
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tags: [idiom]
► definition
Definition:In an unfamiliar or disconcerting situation
► uses
Uses:
Walter: We're talking about unchecked aggression here, Dude.
Donny: What the fuck is he talking about?
Dude: My rug.
Walter: Forget it, Donny, you're out of your element.
Dude: Walter, the chinaman who peed on my rug—I can't go give him a bill—so what the fuck are you talking about?
Joel and Ethan Coen. The Big Lebowski (1998)
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I gathered that they found themselves sadly out of their element in that kind of business at first, but afterward got accustomed to it, reconciled to it, and more or less at home in it.
Mark Twain. Life on the Mississippi (1883)
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Mr. Bhaer soon joined her, looking rather out of his element,
Louisa May Alcott. Little Women (1869)
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my lawyer, being practised almost from his cradle in defending falsehood, is quite out of his element when he would be an advocate for justice, which is an unnatural office he always attempts with great awkwardness, if not with ill-will.
Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels Into Several Remote Regions of the World (1726)
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Vio. I understand you, sir. ’Tis well begg’d.
Clo. The matter, I hope, is not great, sir—begging but a beggar: Cressida was a beggar. My lady is within, sir. I will conster to them whence you come; who you are, and what you would, are out of my welkin—I might say “element,” but the word is overworn.
William Shakespeare. The Twelfth Night (1623)
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