notch on someone's bedpost
- idiom
- Informal
:
marca en la cama
- Getting published in a major journal was a significant notch on her bedpost.
Examples
-
Winning the championship was another notch on his bedpost.
-
Landing the new contract became the next notch on their bedpost at the firm.
-
For him, every successful negotiation was just another notch on his bedpost.
-
After finishing her degree, she added a notch on her bedpost.
-
For him, every successful negotiation was just another notch on his bedpost.
-
Getting published in a major journal was a significant notch on her bedpost.
-
Landing the new contract became the next notch on their bedpost.
Synonyms
4
6.3
An achievement you can be proud of
2
5.5
A visible result you get from effort
Antonyms
How Notable
16
4.4
103
3.2
5
5.6
344
2.3
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
notch + on + someone's + bedpost
The phrase's meaning is directly inferable from the parts: a 'notch' is a marked cut and putting it 'on someone's bedpost' evokes marking a tally or record, so a notch = an item added to someone's record of accomplishments. This concrete, visual logic (making tally marks to count achievements) is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents is likely to understand the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
Notch on someone's bedpost comes from the old habit of cutting a small mark, a notch, into a bedpost to count events like lovers or wins. That's why one more notch came to mean another 'achievement', and today the phrase means a success added to someone's record.