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

pack them • pack them in
pack them —(Austral. sl.) be panic-stricken or terrified (orig-
inally of diarrhea caused by nervousness): You know some-
thing, thought Ron Fisher, you’re no good. You’re packing
them.
pack them in —(Theater) attract a capacity audience: Harry
James and his band have been helping to pack them in at the
Paramount.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase pack it in—(sl.) 
1
. (also: pack in) give up doing smth.
He had long ago “packed it in,” and spent his life sitting by
the window dozing. 2. die: That’s where Jack’s mate from
Hong Kong packed it in.
pain barrier • pain threshold
pain barrier —a state of greatest pain beyond which the pain
diminishes: The muscle is giving me some grief but as long as
there is no long-term damage then I am willing to play
through the pain barrier.
pain threshold —
1
. the point beyond which a stimulus causes
pain: The upper contour is the threshold of pain, above which
the sensation is more of pain than of sound (and the result is
more or less damaging to the ear). 2. the upper limit of tol-
erance to pain: Everyone has a different pain threshold but
how much of that is due to what is going on in the mind is
hard to say.
paint a bow-wow red • paint the town red
paint a bow-wow red —(U.S. diners) put ketchup on a hot
dog: I was always fascinated at how they used diner talk. …
a bow-wow painted red (hot dog with ketchup), they had a
new name for everything.
paint the town red —go on a spree; have a fun-filled night
out: Seniors should get out and paint the town red at this
year’s Seniors Festival. We want Victorian seniors to have the
time of their lives.
painted with the tar brush • touched with the tar
brush
painted with the tar brush —said of people or things repre-
sented as evil or harmful: The myth of the liberal media grew
stronger and the Democrats were painted with the tar brush.
Cf.: tarred with the same brush — said of people considered to
have similar faults or objectionable qualities: As the numbers of
would-be immigrants increase, refugees are tarred with the
same brush as illegal economic migrants.
touched with the tar brush —(may sound offensive) said of a
person who is partly black: Her life story includes spending
overturn
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her childhood not black enough for black folks and too
touched with the tar brush for those picky whites.