Today I think I learnt what stopping short means. You know, I came across this reel on Facebook with an excerpt of Seinfeld. It shows a scene where George's father is furious with Kramer and wants to beat the shit out of him for "stopping short with his wife." A short while before, we watched Kramer driving Mrs. Costanza back from the beauty parlor. The ride was along an avenue with heavy traffic, and at some point Kramer suddenly hits the brakes and holds Mrs. Costanza beside him with his free arm in order to (we have to assume) prevent her head from hitting the windscreen. Later on, already at home, Mrs. Costanza boasts of her new look in front of her husband--she's sure it makes her look much younger, and that it even drove Kramer to hit the brakes just to have the occasion--you, know--to touch her breast.
In an explosion of temper, we later see the furious Frank Costanza (played by Jerry Stiller) bursting into Seinfeld's appartment and crying out for Kramer. Now, there's something that makes me wonder whether stopping short is a common expression in the aforementioned sense or not, since when Frank explains the whole thing to Seinfeld and Elaine, they don't seem to grasp the meaning of it at first. Is it slang--NY slang for that matter? What do you say?
Eugen, I can assure you that's not standard slang anywhere. That show was famous for innovating fun phrases and overusing them in episodes as if they were normal. In the clip you provided, you see Jerry and Elaine's bewilderment when Frank says that Kramer "stopped short" because that was a name that Frank came up with for this type of move on a woman. That's why he had to define it for them. Normally, the phrasal verb stop short is used when someone almost does something, but stops at the last moment.
"At her book signing, the author was supposed to give a short reading and say just enough about her book to pique everyone's interest, so they'd buy her book. But instead, she went on for twenty minutes , revealing the entire plot of the book and stopping short of giving away the surprise ending."
So, in the Seinfeld episode, Frank's use of this phrase is funny because he's usurped it as the name of his famous move, and tries to pass it off as something everyone knows... or should know.
title: [I only see one idiom] What Does It Mean to "Fall Short"?
Stop Short is the first item in a series. Seinfeld is here to stay lol
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Seinfeld and The Simpsons will be unavoidable resources for social scientists in decades to come
y los sangrones de los Friends 🤯
:)
I'd never heard of Seinfeld before. Is that an old movie?
One of the greatest TV shows of all time https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098904/
These links might be useful - https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/stop+short