Eager and alert, as in Here is my new kindergarten class, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The allusion here is to the appearance of a squirrel, which with its beady eyes and bushy tail looks ready for anything. [1930s]
Bright eyed and bushy tailed
| Idioms: bright-eyed and bushy-tailed |
| Best of the Web: Bright eyed and bushy tailed |
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 | bright (Idiom) |
| tail (Idiom) |
| 1946: Old Gold Shows (1994 Album by Frank Sinatra) |
Help us answer these
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 | Idioms. The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
Related answers
- Where did the phrase bright eyed and bushy tailed come from?
- Why do squirels have bushy tails?
- Name a bushy tailed rodent?
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- What is the origin of bright eyed and bushy tailed?
- Why does a squirell have a bushy tail?
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