My fun meter's pegged!

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DX - 20 Jan 2004 00:08 GMT

I've heard a couple times when after hard work, people say: "My fun meter's
pegged!"

I don't quite understand what this sentence means. What is a "fun meter"?
I guess this is an idiom. Could anyone rephrase this sentence to simple
English for me? Thank you for your help!

-ESL Student

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Donna Richoux - 20 Jan 2004 00:23 GMT

> I've heard a couple times when after hard work, people say: "My fun meter's
> pegged!"
>
> I don't quite understand what this sentence means. What is a "fun meter"?
> I guess this is an idiom. Could anyone rephrase this sentence to simple
> English for me? Thank you for your help!

"To peg the meter" means to make a meter hit its top possible reading.
For example:

Within a week my peak flow was 850, and several
times I have pegged the meter at 900 Liters/minute.

...the meter I used to measure power out with has a max
of 60 watts, but the Model 706G "pegged" the meter, so,
60+ is all I can guess at output level.

A "fun meter" is just an idea. It would measure how much fun a person is
having.

The speakers are being sarcastic, or what the British call "ironic,"
saying the opposite of what they mean, for the sake of humor. They mean
they are not having any fun at all.

Does anybody here know -- why "peg"? What sort of meter involves pegs?

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Best -- Donna Richoux

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Lars Eighner - 20 Jan 2004 00:50 GMT

In our last episode,
<1g7u67t.11qybrh10cc04fN%trio@euronet.nl>,
the lovely and talented Donna Richoux
broadcast on alt.usage.english:

> Does anybody here know -- why "peg"? What sort of meter involves pegs?

All the analog electronic meters I have ever dealt with have pegs.
Sometimes the pegs are visible on the dials. More often the pegs
are beneath dials and stop the armature itself instead of the needle.
I suppose that by now there is at least one generation of electronic
tinkerers who have never used an analog meter.

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Lars Eighner -finger for geek code- eighner@io.com http://www.io.com/~eighner/
Sometimes I'm so sweet even I can't stand it. --Julie Andrews

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Richard Maurer - 20 Jan 2004 03:22 GMT

<< [Donna Richoux]
Does anybody here know -- why "peg"? What sort of meter involves pegs?
[end quote] >>

<< [Lars Eighner]
All the analog electronic meters I have ever dealt with have pegs.
Sometimes the pegs are visible on the dials. More often the pegs
are beneath dials and stop the armature itself instead of the needle.
[end quote] >>

And if there were no pegs close to the pivot point,
or where the fat part of the needle goes, then the usual thing
to stop the needle is the box. When the thin part
at the end hits the box, the needle gets bent.

-- ---------------------------------------------
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Peggy Peggy Peggy Peggy, Peggy Sue"

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Skitt - 20 Jan 2004 00:56 GMT

>> I've heard a couple times when after hard work, people say: "My fun
>> meter's pegged!"
[quoted text clipped - 21 lines]
>
> Does anybody here know -- why "peg"? What sort of meter involves pegs?

Many round ones with an indicating needle used to. Here's one:
http://www.malibuwater.com/ImagesAirstone2/Gage53.jpg

As you can see, the peg is at the low end of the scale, but when excessive
pressure is sensed, the needle can go completely around and be stopped by
that peg.

There are, or at least used to be, some gages (or meters) that had a
limiting peg at the high end of the scale, but I can't find a picture of
one.

Signature

Skitt
It's like Jesus said -- give a man a fish, and he'll know where to come
for fish. Teach a man to fish, and you've destroyed your marketbase.

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Sam Melton - 20 Jan 2004 17:55 GMT

>
> >> I've heard a couple times when after hard work, people say: "My fun
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> limiting peg at the high end of the scale, but I can't find a picture of
> one.

I used to be an officer in the Navy, assigned to a submarine. On the
Electric Control Panel in the engine control room (Manuevering Room to
all the squids out there) there was a meter and a control switch that
had formerly had a use but had been abandoned in place. We labeled
the switch the "Sweat Pump" switch (positions: Off and Fast) and the
meter the "Attitude Meter" (always on the low peg). Well...it was
funny at the time.

Even in my present occupation, though, we occassionally detect that a
meter has been overranged by the fact that its indicating needle is
bent where it was forced onto the peg.

V/R
Sam Melton

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DX - 20 Jan 2004 01:23 GMT

Thanks for the reply!
I start to get a feeling what the idiom means. I am also very impressed by
the picture Skitt presents. Thank you all!

> I've heard a couple times when after hard work, people say: "My fun meter's
> pegged!"
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> -ESL Student

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

My fun meter's pegged!