What is the meaning of the English phrase, please?

Debra   Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:30 am GMT
When I read English books I sometimes meet phrases which I cannot understand exactly and cannot find explanations in dictionaries.

For example:

"Talking crops"

"To smell like the grave"
(to be ill, or to be dirty... or what? to be too old?)

"Another fish in the water"

"to kick dirt clods" (or is this one used in a literal sense ?)

May be, someone would help me...
RayH   Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:35 pm GMT
You're going to have to supply more context for these. I've never heard (or read) any of them.
Guest   Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:26 pm GMT
What are you reading, Debra? Crime fiction?
These are not phrases. And it's hard to know the exact meaning without context so you'll have to figure it out yourself.
Anyway, let me try, since I understand where you are with your English and I've nothing better to do right now. Just my 2ยข, though.

"Talking crops" = talking about crops

"To smell like the grave" = to be old

"Another fish in the water" = another player in the game

"to kick dirt clods" = may well be literal
Debra   Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:51 pm GMT
OK, I'll try.

Characterization of a woman:

She despised microbrew, swore by Coors, and was forever kicking dirt clods or talking crops like a Kansas farmboy.
That's all the context.

Another one:
Two lovers together with other members of a tourist group stay in a fortress by a lake. Their lost their way and are out of food. Early in the morning the lovers are waked by a desperate scream from the lake. It is their comrade who cries. And the woman says: "Another fish in the water".
Guest   Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:00 pm GMT
Oh, I forgot to tell, the woman in the 1st example is a professor (not dealing with agriculture).
Guest   Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:06 pm GMT
<She despised microbrew, swore by Coors, and was forever kicking dirt clods or talking crops like a Kansas farmboy. <
Translation = she was a gadgie! LOL

<And the woman says: "Another fish in the water"<
Not clear from the context YOU wrote. Probably a cynicism.

Maybe you would prefer some other literature for the purpose of learning English.
K. T.   Sun Mar 30, 2008 4:48 pm GMT
Although a professor, this character is more like a midwestern farmboy in her tastes.

Microbrew (lol) a more refined type of "beer" made by a small brewery or at home versus Coors-a canned beer from Colorado, I think. It isn't the lowest price beer, but it isn't expensive.

I don't know about the fish. It could have several meanings.

"That was a fish in the water" (not a person falling in the water or another noise.)

You know the story. Was there a suicide?
Debra   Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:37 pm GMT
Oh, thanks to everybody.

As to "fish", I think the right explanation is "another player in the game"
(There was no suicide, the character might want to say that she forgot there were other people about.)

and as to the professor...
I understood, of course, that she has a bit vulgar manner, but I wanted to know if "kicking dirt clods" is a way to characterize a person and has some special meaning or just the author meant that she really had the habit of doing this. I think now, it's just her habit.
Guest   Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:03 pm GMT
Debra, you're welcome. Maybe some link will be of assistance to you. Fare well. <she lucky; me in a good mood>

http://www.urbandictionary.com/
http://dictionary.reference.com/
http://www.answers.com/
http://www.merriam-webster.com/
http://www.snopes.com/