[pbhjpbhj]

>Give the phrase "There's mud all over the shop." a try. //

In which dialect of English is that an idiomatic expression? Never heard it before (en-gb native). What's the interpreted meaning??

[hoseja]

There's a problem that this is a perfectly fine phrase that depends heavily on context. Are you in the middle of complaining about the state the night shift left your establishment in? Probably not an idiomatic use then.

[AntoniusBlock]

`all over the shop' meaning all over the place, not literally all over a shop/store which is what Google Translate and DeepL translate it as. It's British and Irish.

[kwhitefoot]

".. all over the shop" is a perfectly ordinary British Isles idiom. Perhaps more widespread than that.

[pbhjpbhj]

Yes, "all over the shop" is an adverbial expression meaning someone/something was haphazard, lacking in control, or behaving unusually.

"Messi [a footballer] was all over the shop"

might be said if he was regularly out of position in match, or performed uncharacteristically unskillfully. The verb is implied here.

If you say "mud was all over the shop" then the only interpretation I know is that a literal shop has mud over [the inside of] it. That's not idiomatic; it's just plain language.

It could work if you were talking about mud doing something unexpected; maybe a misbehaving oil well.

What's your interpretation of the full expression "there's mud all over the shop"?

[kwhitefoot]

> What's your interpretation of the full expression "there's mud all over the shop"?

Unless the conversation already included references to a building where one buys things it would just mean "there's mud all over the place".

[pbhjpbhj]

Which isn't an idiomatic expression; my original point.

[wheybags]

Makes sense to me, I'm Irish