like a lemon
1
9.4
- idiom
- Informal
:
como un limón
- He just stood there like a lemon when everyone else started dancing.
Examples
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She waited like a lemon while her friends chatted without her.
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During the meeting, I felt like a lemon, not knowing what to contribute.
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He stood there like a lemon while everyone else danced.
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Don't just sit there like a lemon! Join us!
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After being ignored at the party, she stood there like a lemon, feeling out of place.
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Don't just sit there like a lemon; join the conversation and contribute your ideas.
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He felt like a lemon, just watching his friends have fun without him.
Synonyms
Looks out of place and stands out among similar things
Antonyms
How Awkward
Surface Forms
Morphology
like + a + lemon
The meaning 'in a passive, idle, or awkward manner' is not transparently inferable from 'like' + 'a' + 'lemon' because the literal fruit 'lemon' does not conventionally convey passivity or awkwardness; the phrase is an idiomatic characterization of behavior. Even learners who know the individual words are unlikely to predict this figurative sense without prior exposure, so the expression functions as language-specific idiom rather than a compositional combination.
Etymology
Like a lemon may come from the idea of a lemon at a party: it looks bright but is sour and is often left alone and not wanted. So, if you stand like a lemon, you are 'feeling useless', awkward, or out of place.