1 Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs: The Balrog's about to burst into flame!
1 Death of Being Wrestled To Death By Steve: Steve's about to apply the death hold!
2 Death of Insanely Overpowered Fireballs: I can't bear to watch!
2 Death of Being Wrestled To Death By Steve: The suspense is killing me!
3 {beat}
4 Death of Being Wrestled To Death By Steve: You know what I mean.

Metaphors are interesting, in that they often apply even if the literal meaning wouldn't make any sense whatsoever in the culture.

For example: if you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile.

People use that where I live. We all know what it means. But most people born here in Australia within the past 40 years or so would have trouble telling you what an inch or a mile literally is, because we've been using the metric system since the 70s and children aren't taught what inches and miles are at school. (I mean, most people would probably know they're units of distance, but would have trouble telling you how big they are.)

As culture and language change, metaphors get frozen in time, offering us snippets of meaning that have been lost to literal language over the years. Some examples:

• hoist by one's own petard - most people who know what this means don't have any idea what a petard is
• the whole kit and caboodle - most people reading this probably know what this means, but just as likely couldn't say what a caboodle is
• on tenterhooks - you probably know this means "nervous" or "anxious", but do you know what a tenterhook is?