Turn rocks into diamonds

Posted by Pamela February 21, 2008 at 23:50:In reply to Turn rocks into diamonds posted by Angie St John on February 21, 2008 at 12:25:

What does the phrase really mean.... "let's turn these rocks into diamonds?"

Diamonds are mined but for them to reach their most valuable form they need to be extracted from the rock, polished, cut and so on. So "Let's turn these rocks into diamonds" means "Lets do the work needed to get [whatever] into it's final, polished form." It's similar to another phrase: "He/she/it is a diamond in the rough" (or "a rough diamond") - this person or thing will be valuable if polished up a little. Pamela