bring down the house To elicit a vigorous and lengthy ovation from an audience; to be a smash or great success; sometimes bring down the gallery. The image created by this expression, in which house means ‘theater’ or ‘playhouse,’ is one of such loud, sustained applause as to bring about the collapse of the building.
The phrase was in use as early as 1754. have the last laugh To prove ultimately successful after an apparent defeat; to avenge. The idea of having the last laugh is fairly literal, i.e., though others may laugh now, the butt of their humor will laugh later when, in the final analysis, he is victorious. This phrase was popularized in the 1937 song “They All Laughed,”by George and Ira Gershwin: They all laughed at us and how! But Ho, Ho, Ho! Who’s got the last laugh now? Related expressions are he who laughs last laughs best, and he laughs best that laughs last.
The latter appeared in The Mistake (1706) by Sir John Vanbrugh. land on one’s feet To achieve success despite predictable loss; to extricate one-self from a potentially dangerous situation; to escape failure narrowly. This popular expression usually appears in a context implying that the one who “lands on his feet” does so through undeserved luck; he repeatedly gets himself into scrapes but somehow survives. It is apparently based on the notion that one plummeting downward is unlikely to land safely, let alone feet first.
pan out To succeed; to yield results, especially favorable ones; to occur. This expression alludes to panning for gold, a method of prospecting in which a shallow pan is used to scoop a small amount of gravel and sand from a stream. Any gold present settles to the bottom of the pan as the gravel and sand are washed away. Pan out, then, originally indicated a successful prospecting venture. As the California gold rush that spawned this expression began to subside, pan out became more figurative, and has remained in widespread usage since the late 19th century.
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