to write home about
1
7.3
- idiom
- /raɪt hoʊm əˈbaʊt/
- Informal
:
no es nada del otro mundo
- That wasn't anything to get all excited about and, and write home about, but it kept us going.
Because Faulkner in fact wants to suggest that in most people, if you just look at them, they're really nothing to write home about.
- Because Faulkner in fact wants to suggest that in most people, if you just look at them, they're really nothing to write home about.
- The speakers like they get kind of loud, but they're not that great, like not worth writing home about.
- I don't think either I write home about, but they're always like warm, like microwaved warm.
Examples
-
Similarly, Israeli science is nothing to write home about.
Blog text (18) -
Sure, ratings are nothing to write home about, but Spike TV is in the black.
Blog text (12) -
Kind of, but it sure wasn't anything to write home about.
Fiction book (1992) -
Joyce gained a little weight, put on a couple of inches, but it was nothing to write home about.
Fiction book (1994) -
I don't think either I write home about, but they're always like warm, like microwaved warm.
-
The movie was average, certainly nothing to write home about.
-
His performance in the competition was acceptable but nothing to write home about.
-
The food at the new restaurant was fine, but it was nothing to write home about.
Antonyms
How Remarkable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal parts ('write' + 'home' + 'about') do suggest the idea of sending news home about something, so there is a visible link between constituents and the idiomatic meaning 'worthy of mention'. However, the phrase relies on pragmatic/cultural inference (that one writes home only about notable events) and the common negative framing ('nothing to write home about') is not fully predictable from the words alone, so a B1 learner may not reliably derive the exact meaning without exposure.
Etymology
Write home about comes from the image of write and home: sending a letter to your family to tell them about something special. So when people say something is not 'worth writing home about', they mean it is ordinary or 'not impressive'.