An Idiotic Question- Please Indulge Me.
@whiteheather39 (24403)
United States
April 23, 2007 9:22pm CST
After a very nice filling lunch today with some friends we finishing eating, the bill was paid so we started discussing what we were going to do next. Now these friends are all younger than me so they all want to go to the mall. Now I hate wandering around the mall, if I want to buy something I go into the store, buy it and go home. Not this bunch they wander around for hours. So I said "no, count me out I'm going to grab forty winks". Silence they all looked at as if I had spoken Chinese.."what's that?" one of them asked. Now I'm staring .. Is there anyone here on myLot who has never heard of this meaning a nap?
Photo: Forty Winks
15 people like this
40 responses
@matlgal (1686)
• United States
24 Apr 07
LOL God Love em'. Forgive them for they are young? Gosh I have heard that saying since I had ears I think? I cannot imagine escaping hearing that in normal everyday conversations in their lives? That is Bizarre. People say I have more sayings that carters got pills but I am thinking that one is a classic that most people would have heard! Guess what? We learned something new today then LOL
6 people like this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Ha ha (carters- pills) I have heard 40 winks since i was a child.
3 people like this
@BarBaraPrz (47313)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
24 Apr 07
Did they honestly not know you meant you were going to take a nap, or were they being facetious about needing a nap?
I don't like wandering around a mall with other people, either, because invariably they want to go into stores I have no interest in, like clothing stores, for example. Or they speed shop at a store I'd like to spend more time in.
5 people like this
@lonewolfnan (4366)
• Canada
24 Apr 07
First,congrats on passing the 5000 mark.I guess having typed for so long,you must be tired at times.How about taking a catnap?40 winks should not hurt.But I was wondering if they looked at you in surprise because they were caught off guard with you needing a break?I admit I do not go into the mall with my g/f and she can spend hours in there while I read in the car. Did you ask them if they had heard of that saying??(seriously....I wonder if they have heard of it).
@smellsyummy (635)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I'm sorry to say that I have never heard of this expression either...but now I will know in the future if someone says it around me, what it means.
By the way, I don't like wandering around the mall either;)
5 people like this
@charlestchan (1415)
• Malaysia
24 Apr 07
forty winks? erm.. i never heard of such word before.. but if it does exist.. thank for expandinng my vocabulary..young peoples are the same. they always love to go wander around the mall doing nothing.. it's just for the sake of fun of it... they wander around the mall just to see people sometimes.. and do window shopping... i don't prefer it that way.. i'm like you.. i prefer to go to the store.. and buy things needed.. without wasting anytime to walk around the other shops.. i just take what is needed and that's all.. very fast and clean.. haha :)
5 people like this
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
24 Apr 07
Well Heather I have to admit that I have not heard that onne before but I like it
So I think I would have not gone silent I would have asked you if that was something on TV and if it is worth watching and any good
I would have actually asked you what it is about lol
@estherlou (5015)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Boy, sounds like a conversation stopper! Just how young are these friends? LOL I don't use that expression, but knew what you meant. I'm old enough to just say I'm going to take a nap and not be embarrassed!
3 people like this
@classy56 (2880)
• United States
24 Apr 07
lol,,forty winks, i have heard that all my life an i still say it sometimes.40 winks is better than shopping in a mall an now you have taught the younger generation something new..40 winks lol it must come with olded age
@jennybianca (12912)
• Australia
24 Apr 07
I must be as old as you, bcause I know that expression well. It appears to be an expression that has not gone through the ages, but mainly used in "our" old... age bracket.
Hope your birthday lunch urned out well.
oh, and yes, I am not keen on looking at shops just for the sake of it, as my daughter has discovered.
4 people like this
@sigma77 (5383)
• United States
24 Apr 07
That expression has been around for ages. I don't know where it came from. I haven't heard it in a while, but of course it means going to take a nap. Forty winks? Why not 80 and double your pleasure? Can't blame you for wanting a nap over mall-hopping.
3 people like this
@jeweledbluerose (3061)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I have heard the expression "forty winks" used on many occasions and have even used it myself. A lot of older phrasings for things have been forgotten about, with the exception of a few who have heard such expressions all their life.
3 people like this
@xfallenxlostx (2074)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Wow...they really didn't get that you meant you wanted a nap? That is pretty bad. How old are these people that they did not understand that? i think that was even part of a nursury rhyme or something...i seem to remember that being a part of something when i was a child. i am only (amost) 23, but i understood exactly what you meant by forty winks.
3 people like this
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
24 Apr 07
Granted it's not the most usual way of describing a nap but I do understand. Perhaps your friends just weren't latched on the same frequency as you. Or after that filling lunch, their brains were too lazy to think. :P
3 people like this
@marciascott (25529)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I have heard of that expression, Forty Winks.
that means you are going to get some sleep.
@claudia413 (4280)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Whiteheather, I'd say those younger people sure know how to make us older folks feel even older. I've heard that saying all my life, and I'm sure my kids and grandkids have heard that expression also. I was just on the phone with a 37 yr old friend and asked her about "grabbing forty winks". She'd never heard the expression, but she was smart enough to figure it out immediately.
As for mall shopping, when I was younger, I loved to spend hours at the mall. Now it's in and out as fast as I can get what I went in to buy.
2 people like this
@recycledgoth (9894)
•
24 Apr 07
LOL - oh yes grabbing 40 winks, my Nan used to say this and I have often used the phrase.
Congratulations on the 5000 hun :-)
2 people like this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
24 Apr 07
Thank you. It's amazing how "points" fly when you're having fun.LOL
1 person likes this
@honeyangel (1991)
•
24 Apr 07
ive heard of that,well like me you must be showing your age lol
2 people like this
@candiec2005 (828)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I'm sorry but what is that? Forty winks?
2 people like this
@goodwealth_01 (94)
• United States
24 Apr 07
I think it has to do with Rip Van Winkle
3 people like this
