like a bump on a log
With little motion or activity; inert. Don't just sit there like a bump on a log—help me bring in the groceries!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
like a bump on a log
Fig. completely inert. (Derogatory.) Don't just sit there like a bump on a log; give me a hand! You can never tell what Julia thinks of something; she just stands there like a bump on a log.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
like a bump on a log
Unmoving, inactive, stupidly silent. For example, Harry just sat there like a bump on a log while everyone else joined in the fun. This simile presumably alludes to the immobility of such a protuberance. [Colloquial; mid-1800s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
like a bump on a log
Motionless; inactive. This simile, comparing a wooden protuberance to a stolidly inactive individual, was used by Mark Twain (1863), “You have been sitting there for thirty days like a bump on a log,” and was repeated by such popular writers as Kate Douglas Wiggin (in The Birds’ Christmas Carol, 1899).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer