have the guts

Idioms & Phrases

have the guts

Possess the courage, as in Does he have the guts to dive off the high board? This expression replaces the earlier and now obsolete sense of stomach as "courage," a usage from the early 1500s. [Slang; late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Have the guts is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

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"There are various forms of the disease which the victim is unable to say "No." Some of these forms are more serious than others, and often lead to electrocution or marriage.... "No-phobia" reaches its height of futility when someone is giving you directions as to how to reach some place that you really want to reach.... The result is, I spend the night crashing up and down the wrong streets and am known as a boor who never arrives on time. And all because I didn't have the guts to say, "I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about.""

-Robert Benchley

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