Is this an idiom? Letting something 'roll of your back'

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People talk about when someone says something upsetting to let it 'roll of your back'. The image that comes to my mind is sort of like a waterfall with water rolling down your back. I guess that is partly from reading a Star Trek novel where a character was telling someone to picture yourself as a rock and words (or maybe she/he said water) rolling off you.

Either way that is the picture that comes to my mind. Is letting something 'roll of your back' an idiom?

First off: its "off".

NOT "of"!

But yes "let it roll off your back" IS an idiom.

It comes from waterfowl. Ducks are covered in a kind of body oil that deflects water, and keeps their feathers from getting waterlogged. So folks will say "let it roll off your back like you're a duck", or words to that effect.

Like water off a duck's back.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/lik ... uck's+back

You learn something new every day (the duck thing)

What does it mean as an idiom? Just 'let it slide' as in 'let it go' as in don't let it bother you?

I realise I use a lot of idioms in my speech but if asked to replace them with a literal meaning I might actually struggle with some of them

Basically that.

The visual for me is that you're deluged with water, but it doesnt "soak in". It just flows off of you. So if a difficult person gives you a lot of grief it just flows off your back, and doesnt weigh you down.

That's a nice way to picture it.
I was thinking about the way the OP phrased it and and 'roll' made me think of someone rolling or shrugging their shoulders as if a physical action rolls off a mental weight... which I then realised links straight to 'shrug it off' which essentially means the same thing (I'm a verbal thinker but will also visualise, especially when it comes to word imagery).

I think exactly the same thing. I have never heard 'Roll Off Your Back' used as an idiom , it sounds like a malaphor to me.

Water Off A Ducks Back + Get The Monkey Off Your Back + Roll With The Punches

[moved from GAD to random discussion]

yeh. the uropygial gland (or "preen gland") while occurring in many birds are especially developed in waterbirds such as peilcans, ducks, and oilbirds, those who use powder down for feather maintenance do not produce much oil, if any. there are studies showing a direct correlation between the size of said gland and the degree of the bird's contact with water, the uropygiols are hydrophobic and this allows water to roll off the ducks back, and this effect might be intensified by electrostatic charges given to the oiled feather by the mechanical action of preening itself...though this is largely unsupported.

i think this is a budgie:



i'm no ornithologist though...my GFs friend is.



most idioms originate from sensical happenings i think...i'd love to know where this came from.

I've heard the expression "like water off a duck's back". Actually I first remember hearing it in a car commercial years ago that had Donald, Daisy, and Huey, Dewy, and Louie in it. They were animated in a live-action commercial like Roger Rabbit. The phrase was used when one of the nephews drops an ice cream cone inside the car but Daisy just cleans it up easily.

Ducks have waterproof feathers, so getting wet is not something that would bother them since it just rolls right off their back. Although lately I've heard people use a less G-rated word for a duck's behind.

I have no idea sorry , thought it originated from a fable called The Monkey and the Dolphin ??




Definately heard that one too Although to me a D.A. is a vintage teddy boy hairstyle

I first heard the phrase "monkey on your back" when I saw a video an old and disturbing PSA from the 70's about heroine addiction. It shows one of those toy monkeys with the cymbals and you hear a kid say "They say people addicted to heroine have a monkey on their back. Isn't that cute?" and then suddenly they zoom in on a real monkey's face with its mouth wide open as it makes a terrible screeching sound.

That may have just been history's first "screamer". Anyway that's what that saying is supposed mean. I read that a variation of the saying is having a Chinaman on your back, but if they made that into a PSA it would have been really racist and even more disturbing.