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

too many chiefs and not enough Indians • too
many cooks spoil the broth
too many chiefs and not enough Indians —(saying ) there are
too many bosses and not enough people to do the work: “Too
many chiefs and not enough Indians.” In some cases that’s
what we are seeing in high-tech industry today.
too many cooks spoil the broth —(saying ) when too many peo-
ple try to manage smth. they only spoil it: “Too many cooks
spoil the broth”…. In other words, a good simple idea can be
ruined by too many people trying to improve it.
top line • up line
top line —
1
. the uppermost line of text: A special machine,
an “interpreter,” can be used to read the cards and print their
contents on the top line. 2. the head item on a bill of enter-
tainment: His duets with Miss Muriel George have reached a
top-line position on the halls. 3. headline of a newspaper:
This big “top line” caught my eye: “The Pocasset filicide.” 4.
said of the best or most important traded items: Our huge
purchase includes many carloads of the top lines of merchan-
dise.
up line —(Railroad) a single track of rails in a double line
of railway (for trains traveling from left to right): The train
was accordingly shunted on to the up line and proceeded back
to town.
See also: bottom line / bottom of the line.
top ten • upper ten
top ten —the highest ranking music items, goods, etc. on a
ten-point scale: Pet foods come sixth in the consumer top ten.
Baby food lags way behind.
upper ten —the upper social classes; the aristocrats: The
upper ten still send their children to Eton or Harrow.
touch and go • touch and goes
touch and go —said of a very uncertain or critical situation:
The day after the operation was touch-and-go. The patient
needed a tremendous amount of fluid…
touch and goes —(RAF) landing and immediate take-off as