W. Baker wrote:
> Ozgirl > wrote:
>
>
>> "KROM" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> sorry ozgirl but "put it out of its misery" has always meant to kill
>>> it here and I've heard it used in UK movies in the euthanize
>>> context.
>>>
>>> put "what does put it out of its misery mean?" into a Google search
>>> bar and see the result.
>>>
>>> its very easy to take something a person says wrong..so lets be
>>> careful when taking a idiom wrong in others because we will
>>> eventually do it ourselves.
>>>
>>> KROM
>
>> In my country an ass is not a butt. Should I take Americans literally
>> when they say ass? I accept what Americans use in that context, can
>> it be possible that Americans can accept different word/phrase
>> usages from others? Especially when the context was there, i.e.
>> followed by a list of possible ways to relieve said misery. Instead
>> of a call of Ozgirl suggests I kill my cat! How about, Ozgirl, are
>> you saying I should kill my cat? Nope, kangaroo trial instead.
>> Tolerance for differences at its best, but yet... the phrase means
>> more than just to kill even in America. Not my problem if people in
>> here haven't experienced it. Not my problem that people refuse to
>> check it into properly. Google: "define: put out of misery".
>
>> "http://www.writersevents.com/Words_Starting_with_P/put_ones_foot_down_put_something_together/put_someone_or_something_out_of_their_misery_defin ition.html
>> Idiom: put someone or something out of their misery
>> To ****relieve them***** from their physical suffering or their
>> mental anguish.
>> To kill (an animal that is in great pain)." (American)
>
>> "http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/put-sb-out-of-their-misery
>> to stop someone worrying, usually by giving them information that
>> they have been waiting for" (British)
>
>> "http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/put+someone+out+of+his+or+her+misery
>> Kill a wounded or suffering animal or person, as in When a horse
>> breaks a leg, there is nothing to do but put it out of its misery .
>> [Late 1700s]
>
>> End someone's feeling of suspense, as in Tell them who won the
>> tournament; put them out of their misery . [c. 1920] *******Both
>> usages employ put out of in the sense of "extricate" or "free
>> from."********" (American)
>
>> http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+out+of+misery
>> Put (one) out of (one's) misery
>> 1. Euph. Fig. to kill someone as an act of mercy. Why doesn't the
>> doctor simply put her out of her misery? He took pills to put
>> himself out of his misery.
>> 2. Fig. to end a suspenseful situation for someone. Please, put me
>> out of misery; what happened? I put her out of her misery and told
>> her how the movie ended.
>> See also: misery, out, put
>> McGraw-Hill Dictionary of ****************American
>> Idioms************* and Phrasal Verbs. ? 2002 by The McGraw-Hill
>> Companies, Inc.
>
>> Anyone still want to tell me the phase ONLY means to euthanise?
>
>>
>
> A number of us simultainiously were astounded to hear that there was
> another meaning for a phrase we had all only heard s meaning to put
> down or wthenize n animal. We all wrote, pretty simlutaniously.
> When you described tht to you it didn't mean that some of us , at
> leasi I, said that in the US it was not such a meaning tht it had in
> oz. thant's all. When you sain put him out of his misery we had had
> an automatic response. Once we were told tht it was one of those bum
> , ass, knock up , kind of differences between British based and
> American usages we could begin to deal with it. Criticising us all
> and claiming dog iling, etc is rather an overkill from the Aussies as
> it was totally new to us USAns that there was any other meaning.
>
> Please don't let your hostility towards Susan so cloud your view that
> you misinterpret all of our reactions. It is simply one of those
> langage differences that come up every once in a while.

Could it be an age thing? Older people think it means that? I will ask my
mom.

Okay, I just did. She said in the context in which it was said, there is no
way she would think that. So not an age thing.