Modul 5: Idiom 37: Water Under the Bridge

Water under the bridge

Hi. Let’s take a look at the idiom, “water under the bridge”. When you say that something is “water under the bridge”, you mean that it happened in the past and cannot be changed, so it is no longer important. 

“I and my brother often rode a tandem bike in our childhood. It’s water under the bridge now. We rarely meet nowadays.”

Now think about the water that flows under the bridge. You can no longer collect that water, swim in it, or fish in it, right? It’s gone forever. You’ve waited too long. 

You can refer to a missed opportunity – you know, a good chance to achieve something – as “water under the bridge” too. For, example, “I forgot my sister’s birthday yesterday, but it’s water under the bridge now.” I deeply regret it. (= I’m really sorry about it.)

But what is the origin of this idiom?

There is a proverb saying “a lot of water has flown under the bridge”. It means a lot of time has passed since an event or a bad experience. From this proverb comes the metaphorical phrase – the idiom –  ‘water under the bridge’, which was used in the idiomatic sense in the 1930s first.

Let’s take a look at our illustration.

This young man is standing on a bridge. He is throwing his love letter into the river. This is because his relationship did not work out. His relationship with his girlfriend is gone just like the love letter. He can never get either of them back. They are “water under the bridge”. 

Here are some examples before we go to the concept questions…

“Let’s forget about that heated argument we had last night.” “Yeah, no worries. It is water under the bridge.”

I had a problem with our secretary the other day, but our disagreement is water under the bridge now. 

The boss used to be terribly rude to George. Now it seems to be water under the bridge.

Frank is relieved that his time in jail is over and considers it water under the bridge. 

I thought that my mistake was water under the bridge, but I was wrong: people still talk about it.

Great.

Let’s look at some situations and check your understanding:

1. 
Jen cooks lunch and dinner for her children every day. Last Saturday morning she went shopping to relax a bit. As she had no time to cook, the family had nothing to eat for lunch, so Jen’s husband decided to order some pizza for the children. Do the children consider Jen forgetting to cook lunch water under the bridge? Yes. They were happy with the takeaway and didn’t really feel disappointed.

2.
Fred’s family forgot his 18th birthday. He is still mad about this. Does he consider it water under the bridge? No. He believes that a birthday is an important event, so he still remembers his disappointment and doesn’t consider it water under the bridge. 

3.
In the middle of the night, Mike decided to go downstairs from his bedroom to the kitchen. He turned the light above the stairs on so that he could walk down. However, this woke his brother, Brian, up. Brian was angry at Mike, so he turned the light off. This led to Mike falling down the stairs and breaking his leg. Now he has to walk with crutches. Do you think Mike considers this accident water under the bridge? No. He will probably remember this serious accident for quite a long time.  

4.
Ten years ago Lisa accidentally crashed her bike into John’s favourite car. This angered John at first, but then he jumped out of his car to check if Lisa was okay. She wasn’t injured but was in shock. John wanted to comfort her, so they sat in a café for a cappuccino. This led to a date and, long story short, now, they are happily married with 2 kids. Does John consider Lisa crashing into his car water under the bridge? Yes. He has long forgiven Lisa for the incident.

5.
Dan is 20 years old. He wanted to get into university, but he was 8 points short. Do you think his opportunity to get into a university is water under the bridge? No. He’s only 20 years old, so he still has a chance. He can get more points to reapply next year.