Does "a fish in so tiny a barrel" mean "a turtle in a small jar"?

I would hesitate to describe a construction like "[noun] at its most [adjective]" as idiomatic. It can be perfectly well understood from the individual meanings of its elements e.g.:

Steak - a cut of of meat

at its most - at some maximum state or level, described by a following adjective

delicious - good to eat.

"Typical"? I don't know what to say, except that English is not algebra or Lego. Are you a native English speaker?

Daily Mail 13 March 2014
A schoolboy has forced Tesco to admit it made a mistake on the label of its orange juice after he noticed an embarrassing grammatical blunder.

Albert Gifford, 15, was enjoying his breakfast at home in Shepton Mallet, Somerset when he saw that his carton of juice boasted it was made with the 'most tastiest' oranges.

He wrote to the supermarket giant to complain, suggesting they change the wording to 'tastiest' or 'most tasty' - and they have now agreed to correct the packaging.

Albert, who is studying for his GCSEs at Whitstone School, saw the mistake on the £1 carton of orange juice one morning last month.

The label read: 'Only the best quality fruit makes the grade for our juices. We squeeze or press it only when it's perfectly ripe and at its most tastiest.'

Open Colleges Australia
This is subject-verb agreement at its most fundamental.

Teaching Foreign Languages In Secondary Schools (Open University)
a perverse desire to experience the pain of grammar at its most excruciating

The Grammar Of Perspective by Christopher Woods
the grammatical voice force of the prefixes is at its most potent the closer the prefix is to the verbal root

Get To Grips With English Grammar by Ron Simpson
the simplest of statements (English grammar at its most basic) consists of a name and what he/she/it did: 'Jesus wept.'

Grammar And Composition: A Senior Course by CA Sheppard & BR Thomas
Unfortunately, a constrictor, usually a sluggish creature, is at its most active when short of wind.

"Wow" is an informal/colloquial exclamation of surprise or alarm. In context it means "I am very surprised by this". It is used here as a way of expressing derision, anger, etc at what Dawkins is said to have written.

Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts. Freethought Feeding Frenzy. “Dawkins actually said – I kid you not – that his experience in the squash court wasn’t the worst thing that ever happened. Wow, just wow. Where has he been these past few years? Doesn’t everyone nowadays know there are NO gradations? All cases are exactly equally bad. How dare Dawkins BELITTLE the horrors of pedophiliac assault?”

Quote:

Daily Mail 13 March 2014
A schoolboy has forced Tesco to admit it made a mistake on the label of its orange juice after he noticed an embarrassing grammatical blunder.

Albert Gifford, 15, was enjoying his breakfast at home in Shepton Mallet, Somerset when he saw that his carton of juice boasted it was made with the 'most tastiest' oranges.

He wrote to the supermarket giant to complain, suggesting they change the wording to 'tastiest' or 'most tasty' - and they have now agreed to correct the packaging.

Albert, who is studying for his GCSEs at Whitstone School, saw the mistake on the £1 carton of orange juice one morning last month.

The label read: 'Only the best quality fruit makes the grade for our juices. We squeeze or press it only when it's perfectly ripe and at its most tastiest.'

Quote:

Open Colleges Australia
This is subject-verb agreement at its most fundamental.

Quote:

Teaching Foreign Languages In Secondary Schools (Open University)
a perverse desire to experience the pain of grammar at its most excruciating

Quote:

The Grammar Of Perspective by Christopher Woods
the grammatical voice force of the prefixes is at its most potent the closer the prefix is to the verbal root

Quote:

Get To Grips With English Grammar by Ron Simpson
the simplest of statements (English grammar at its most basic) consists of a name and what he/she/it did: 'Jesus wept.'

Impressive.

Quote:

Grammar And Composition: A Senior Course by CA Sheppard & BR Thomas
Unfortunately, a constrictor, usually a sluggish creature, is at its most active when short of wind.

Well, I think I'd be allowed to put some other questions here without the need to create a new thread.

The exact meaning of the word "knew". Does it mean "was familiar with"?

Context:

Afar, old Xian Hill in a hazy pile,
In one snug nook, the home Pang Tong once knew.
There lads could tell the turtledove's homing call;
And news of his great deeds was known by all.

The exact meaning of the word "knew". Does it mean "was familiar with"?

contrex wrote:

"Wow" is an informal/colloquial exclamation of surprise or alarm. In context it means "I am very surprised by this". It is used here as a way of expressing derision, anger, etc at what Dawkins is said to have written.

Thanks.
Tow questions remain:
1) Are both ]Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts and Freethought Feeding Frenzy two magazine?

2) Does " NO gradations" mean "(there are) no different levels (all at the same level_"?

Quote:

Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts. Freethought Feeding Frenzy. “Dawkins actually said – I kid you not – that his experience in the squash court wasn’t the worst thing that ever happened. Wow, just wow. Where has he been these past few years? Doesn’t everyone nowadays know there are NO gradations? All cases are exactly equally bad. How dare Dawkins BELITTLE the horrors of pedophiliac assault?”

1) Are both ]Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts and Freethought Feeding Frenzy two magazine?

2) Does " NO gradations" mean "(there are) no different levels (all at the same level_"?

However, you included ones that follow what I’ve been pointing out, that the phrase is typically grammatical (as compared to the idiomatic uses you’ve illustrated) when the adjectives describe something else in the sentence, e.g. a point, as I previously suggested, or state or level, as you did, such as, “at its most potent the closer the prefix is to the verbal root,” “at its most active when short of wind.”

Thanks. Does "Pandemonium in the Pigeon-lofts" mean "turmoil in the pigeon house"? What does it mean?

It is a simile

Quote:

It is a simile

It is not a simile, "pandemonium in the pigeon lofts" is not a comparison.

It is an implied simile.