been to the rodeo

Definitions

Been exposed to conmen and hucksters; experienced.

idiomatic

Examples

“Some years ago I was talking to a ten-year-old boy who had been to the Rodeo. He was a lad whom most casual observers would readily have⟳ called tough.”

“I'm a man past his prime who's been to the rodeo and back, as they say⟳. I've been an actor, a bartender, a maitre d', and a hustler, without much success at any of them.”

“I was one of the few graduating privates promoted from Army class El to E-2. To paraphrase Joan Crawford, I'd been to the rodeo and survived.”

CEFR level