set a stone rolling —(also: set the stone rolling ) start smth. which may lead to serious or unanticipated consequences:
- He used to treat the opium abuse as the ancestors’ tradition. Anyway, this set a stone rolling, and a tiny seed of a big misfortune was planted…
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase rolling stone—a wanderer; an unsettled person:
- He proceeded to explain that Clyde had ever been a rolling stone—one who preferred to wander here and there.
set the ball rolling —(also: get the ball rolling ) start or initiate smth.:
- Since Malthus set the ball rolling, public opinion has undergone profound metamorphoses.
Note: Neither expression correlates in meaning with the nominal compound log-rolling—(sl.) mutual assistance in political or other action (used showing disapproval):
- Politics should never have been allowed to degenerate into a game of log-rolling.