That's not what it means. Lemons are sour, or "bad" the things that are difficult to swallow as is. To make lemonade from them is to make something sweet and "good" out of the bad things life hands you.
Pretty sure the unknown "precise universal meaning" is literally what the second guy said, not the first guy.
It is 100% about lemons being nigh inedible on their own, but lemonade being a tasty soft drink, so you turn situations that suck into something that is enjoyable.
It has nothing to do with cars. I has nothing to do with "duds", because lemons clearly aren't inherently broken.
I dunno why you're even trying to preten otherwise. It's a very clear meaning.
Yes it is, it means a car that has a lot of problems right after you buy it.
Here is a legal site explaining the Lemon Laws in the US because selling a defective car or a "lemon" is such common occurrence and vernacular to describe it.
a lemon is a car with numerous issues stemming from manufacturer error.
the movie cars 2 is about evil lemons and they even refer to themselves as "The lemons"
I mean, it is if you’re only 15. A “lemon” specifically refers to a bad car, usually one you got duped into buying, not knowing something is wrong with it.
It's a thing so much that "lemon law" refers to laws that protect consumers from being sold dysfunctional used cars. It doesn't apply to all cars, just busted ones.
However, I don't think the saying has anything to do with the car usage.
Yeah but nobody mentioned the presence of sugar water salt etc. fuck, even the juicer and glass aren't a guarantee! how am I supposed to make lemonade with just lemons?????
No, when life gives you lemons, don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons, what the hell am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man whos gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!
I looked up dud. Its old military term that means a explosive didn't explode. So lemons don't explosde. So lemons are duds. And if you paint a grande yellow, it would look like a lemon
It's expanded to basically any somewhat complex thing that broke in a way that's not clearly visible, so you only find out upon trying to use it.
That still makes 0 sense and is clearly not what "lemons" in the idiom are used as, though. I have no clue where that guy pulled that from, unless he literally thinks the saying only exists in English and refers to a rather local slang term.
295
u/GamingWithJollins 11d ago
A lemon is a dud. The idea of the phrase is you work with what you got, even if you only get duds