Water off a duck’s back

    耳旁风Water off a duck’s back字面解释就是“水过鸭背”，这是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: Have you heard? John crashed his new car yesterday.

    B: Oh, my, how is he? I told him more than once not to drive so fast but it was like water off a duck’s back.

    A: He suffered minor injuries. The other driver was not so lucky and had multiple bone fractures.

    Note: “Water off a duck’s back” is an idiomatic colloquialism that applies the meaning “having little or no apparent effect.” The idiom pertains to the way water beads and runs off the oily feathers, with the duck showing no indication of having gotten “wet” in the process. As such, the phrase is used to describe incidents or comments that seem to have no effect on someone or something. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms attributes its origin to the early 1800s, with no further comment on its original use.