Idioms
Even in English-speaking countries that have moved from the Imperial to the metric system (for example, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand), the mile is still used in a variety of idioms. These include:
- A country mile is used colloquially to denote a very long distance.
- "A miss is as good as a mile" (failure by a narrow margin is no better than any other failure)
- "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile" - a corruption of "Give him an inch and he'll take an ell" (the person in question will become greedy if shown generosity)
- "Missed by a mile" (missed by a wide margin)
- "Talk a mile a minute" (speak at a rapid rate)
- "To go the extra mile" (to put in extra effort)
- "Miles away" (lost in thought, or daydreaming)
- "Milestone" (an event indicating significant progress)
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