semantic shift: "coming out of the woodwork"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Rebel redhead Michelle Bachmann declares that her presidential
campaign has "nonstop support coming out of the woodwork all over the
country."

"Coming out of the woodwork" is here a neutral or even a positive term
implying "appearing unexpectedly."

Had Rep. Bachmann thought otherwise, she wouldn't have said it.

Contrast "coming" with the more freq. "crawling."

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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