A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

Lake State, the • Salt Lake State, the
Lake State, the —(U.S.) a nickname of the state of Michigan:
Michigan is also known as the Lake State, or the Great Lakes
State (which appears on the state license plates) for its prox-
imity to Lake Michigan.
Salt Lake State, the —(U.S.) a nickname of the State of Utah:
The only “non–Mormon” nickname is the Salt Lake State, but
even this is closely linked with the Mormons, who first settled
in what is now known as Salt Lake.
lame duck • ugly duckling
lame duck —
1
. an officeholder who has been defeated for
reelection or is not seeking reelection: Tony Blair made himself
a lame duck by stating that he would not fight a fourth general
election. 2. a person or thing considered as weak or unfortu-
nate: I did find myself waiting for the end to come, which
when it did was completely unfulfilling. This movie is just a
lame duck with a loaded cast.
ugly duckling —an unpromising person or thing that be -
comes successful or admirable: In school I was an ugly duck-
ling and a loner. Nobody believed I could ever be a great
actress and singer except me.
land of fruit and nuts, the • land of milk and
honey, the
land of fruit and nuts, the —(U.S.) a jocular nickname of
the state of California (reference being made to both the agri-
cultural abundance and the stereotypical image of Californi-
ans as being other than normal, cf.: “fruit”—(sl.) a crazy person,
and “nuts”—(sl.) crazy): Although Californians are known to
come from the “land of fruit and nuts” not all of us are like
that.
land of milk and honey, the —
1
. in the Old Testament, a
poetic name for the Promised Land: The Jewish people were
brought out of slavery in Egypt by Moses to the land of milk
and honey promised to them by God. 2. any place of great
abundance: Many Mexicans regard the United States as the
land of milk and honey.