science

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the dismal science

A disparaging term for the discipline of economics, coined in 1849 by Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle as a label for the school of economists who supported the abolition of slavery. Economists have predicted that the exponential population growth will eventually cause our entire society to collapse in on itself—I suppose that is why they are known as practitioners of the dismal science.

be not rocket science

To not be a pursuit, activity, or endeavor that requires extraordinary skill or intelligence. Look, all you need to do is reformat the hard drive on your computer. It isn't rocket science! Sure, it took a little bit of time to figure out, but reinstalling the modem wasn't rocket science or anything.

See also: not, rocket, science

rocket science

A pursuit, activity, or endeavor that requires extraordinary skill or intelligence. Most often used in the negative to imply the opposite. Look, all you need to do is reformat the hard drive on your computer. It isn't rocket science! I thought it would be simple enough to fix the car's engine on my own, but this turned out to be like rocket science to me!

blind (someone) with science

To use technical terms or scientific jargon that the listener does not understand. As you plan your talk, be careful not to blind the audience with science.

have (something) down to a science

To learn, master, or understand something perfectly, to the point of requiring little or no focus to do, recall, or accomplish it. I had my routine down to a science so there wouldn't be any room for error during the performance. I'm a working mom of three, so I've got lunch-making down to a science—I put out all the pieces of bread, add jelly to each one, and then do the same with peanut butter.

not rocket science

If you say that something isn't rocket science, you mean that it is easy or obvious. It isn't rocket science to figure out that you will sell more sweets if you put them where small children will see them. People should be able to fill in the forms themselves — this isn't rocket science. Note: You can use expressions such as it doesn't take or you don't have to be a rocket scientist to point out that something is very easy or obvious. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why he's so angry. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. Note: The expression rocket scientist, meaning `very clever person', is used in various other structures. Now I'm no rocket scientist, but even I could see those figures looked way too high.

See also: not, rocket, science

blind someone with science

If someone blinds you with science, they tell you about something in a complicated, technical way so that you find it hard to understand. We want facts and figures but don't want to be blinded by science. I must admit that as a teenage, amateur photographer I learned all the technical jargon so I could impress people by blinding them with science.

blind someone with science

use special or technical knowledge and vocabulary to confuse someone.

not rocket science

used to indicate that something is not very difficult to understand. humorous

See also: not, rocket, science

ˌblind somebody with ˈscience

deliberately confuse somebody with your special knowledge, especially by using difficult or technical words which they do not understand: Every time I ask her a simple question, she tries to blind me with science.

it’s not ˈrocket science

used in order to emphasize that something is not complicated or difficult to do or understand: Oh, I’m sure I’ll manage. It’s not exactly rocket science, is it?

See also: not, rocket, science

have/get something down to a ˈscience

(especially American English, often humorous) have a very precise and efficient way of doing something, especially something that is normally done in a casual or informal way: When Tom says he has shopping down to a science, he isn’t kidding.

See also: down, get, have, science, something

References in classic literature ?

At that time Professor Joseph Henry, who knew more of the theory of electrical science than any other American, was the Grand Old Man of Washington; and poor Bell, in his doubt and desperation, resolved to run to him for advice.

In all the books of electrical science, there was nothing to help Bell and Watson in this journey they were making through an unknown country.

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In order to soothe Georgiana, and, as it were, to release her mind from the burden of actual things, Aylmer now put in practice some of the light and playful secrets which science had taught him among its profounder lore.

The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and was tainted with gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the processes of science.

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As fast as the ascertained facts of science have overthrown their subjective explanations of things, they have made new subjective explanations of things, including explanations of the latest ascertained facts.

A period wherein science was raped by the metaphysicians, wherein physics became a search for the Philosopher's Stone, wherein chemistry became alchemy, and astronomy became astrology.

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From the time of Descartes to Hume and Kant it has had little or nothing to do with facts of science.

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All the papers, pamphlets, reports-- all the journals published by the scientific, literary, and religious societies enlarged upon its advantages; and the Society of Natural History of Boston, the Society of Science and Art of Albany, the Geographical and Statistical Society of New York, the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian of Washington sent innumerable letters of congratulation to the Gun Club, together with offers of immediate assistance and money.

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Plato among the Greeks, like Bacon among the moderns, was the first who conceived a method of knowledge, although neither of them always distinguished the bare outline or form from the substance of truth; and both of them had to be content with an abstraction of science which was not yet realized.

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It was in this place, seemingly belonging entirely to the past, that Professor Stangerson and his daughter installed themselves to lay the foundations for the science of the future.

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Through fear there grew also MY virtue, that is to say: Science.

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I shall then briefly sketch the nature of that fundamental science which I believe to be the true metaphysic, in which mind and matter alike are seen to be constructed out of a neutral stuff, whose causal laws have no such duality as that of psychology, but form the basis upon which both physics and psychology are built.

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Levin had come across the magazine articles about which they were disputing, and had read them, interested in them as a development of the first principles of science, familiar to him as a natural science student at the university.

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Natural philosophy is the genius that has regulated my fate; I desire, therefore, in this narration, to state those facts which led to my predilection for that science.

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His deference to this particular branch of science had induced him to listen to the application of a medical man, whose thirst for natural history had led him to the desire of profiting by the migratory propensities of the squatter.