You're robbing the cradle!

Hey everyone do you understand what that idiom means? It is North American English. We use it  when someone is dating someone much younger than them. A cradle is a baby's bed!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cradle_2_(PSF).png

So someone who is robbing the cradle is stealing a baby from their bed, it is a bit of a joking/teasing expression used between friends.

 Anthony is robbing the cradle! His new girlfriend is 20 years younger than him!

It can also be used as a noun: a cradle-robber.

Pat: Tim's a real cradle-robber, he's always dating much younger women. When he was 25 he dated a 15 year old!

Sheila: Ewww, gross.

That expression can be used for both men & women who date people much younger than them. A fairly new expression is: a cougar. This refers to a woman who dates much younger guys, usually for their bodies.

Harry likes to go to cougar bars, he loves older women.

Shannon's a real cougar, she's always hitting on young guys since her divorce.

Have a nice week,

Phil

Watch out for her she's a total cougar!

Today we are going to talk about a pretty new slang word: a cougar. This is a pretty popular new word and there is even a new sitcom (situational comedy - a 30 minute comedy show) on TV called Cougar Town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HLhOrQuy9U


A cougar is an older woman who dates younger men often to use them for sex. I heard that the word started in Canada(maybe Calgary?) but I am not sure if that is true. Some young guys like to go to "cougar bars" to meet older women for sex and not have to think of the complications you get from relationships...

...it is an interesting phenomenon because when older men date younger women people are not so surprised and consider it normal but when older women date younger women it is still considered a bit shocking. This is what we call a double standard, meaning one thing is ok but the opposite isn't.

Hope you enjoyed this mini-lesson on recent slang~!

Phil

P.S. slang is what we call a very casual form of speech for example gyakunan is slang for gyanku nanpa or reverse picking up in Japanese ^_-