Jun 13, 2012 06:17
11 yrs ago
English term

in fresh as a daisy

English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
The next morning a nurse came in fresh as a daisy, a smile on her face. “How are you this morning, dear?” she asked. I looked at her with the warmth of a rusty nail. “What’s this?” she said, looking in my teacup.
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (2): Cilian O'Tuama, Colin Rowe

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Discussion

Sorry - I meant that the narrator who greets the nurse so caustically probably finds the freshness and perkiness insulting and irritating rather than the normal clean and nice connotations. The nurse's freshness makes the patient's irritation even worse.
Catharine Cellier-Smart Jun 13, 2012:
careful with the parsing, it's "a nurse came in" "fresh as a daisy"

Responses

+7
6 mins
Selected

Fresh, new, alert, clean

Well known phrase - from the idea that daisies are a pure white, fresh looking flower that come out early in the morning as the sun hits them. So an idea of newness, cleanliness - which contrasts with the smile - so probably a bit insultingly fresh and perky.
Peer comment(s):

agree Charles Davis : Perhaps "brisk" too
9 mins
Brisk isn't normally part of fresh as a daisy, but certainly works in this context! Thanks!
agree Jack Doughty
16 mins
Thank you!
agree Andrei Vrabtchev
41 mins
Thank you!
agree Vaddy Peters : flourishing (in a way)
1 hr
Thank you!
agree Anita Šumer
1 hr
Thank you!
agree Sheila Wilson : Nurses do tend to be far too cheerful, don't they? Sort of rubs it in!
3 hrs
Thank you!
agree Phong Le
6 days
Thank you!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thank you!"
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