Mayhem Parva
noun
(Especially in critical writing) the genre of mystery stories set in a rural English village; (the generic name for) a typical English village as the setting for a violent crime; frequently attributive, as Mayhem Parva school, etc.
Origin
1970s; earliest use found in Colin Watson (1920–1982). From mayhem + classical Latin parva, feminine singular of parvus little, after English village names with this as second element (e.g. Ash Parva, Shropshire, Ashby Parva, Leicestershire, etc.).
- like a bull in a china shop
- like a cat on a hot tin roof (also on hot bricks)
- like a deer (or rabbit) in the headlights
- like a demon
- like a dog with two tails
- like a dose of salts
- like a dream
- like a drowned rat
- like a headless chicken
- like a (hot) knife through butter
- like a lamb to the slaughter
- like a leech
- like a man (or woman) possessed
- like a moth to the flame
- like anything
- like a rat up a drainpipe
- like a ripe plum (or ripe plums)
- like a scalded cat
- like a shag on a rock
- like a shot
- like a streak
- like a stunned mullet
- like a ton of bricks
- like blazes
- like blue murder