Talk at sb/blow away one's cobwebs (American English)

[Twin]

Hello are the above phrases in use in American English?

I remember using them in a conversation with a girl from the US and she said that she did not know what they mean?

[Foah]

Hi Twin!

Please, allow me some thoughts on your topic.

Well, the language, no matter which, allows us talking figuratively and it depends on our opponent and the situation whether you?ll be understood the right way.

Concerning your idom it came to my mind that spiders prefer spining their webs between things which hadn?t been used for a long time. In that sense it sometimes might be dangerous for a man to suggest to a woman or girl to blow away her cobwebs ! :wink: :lol: So, as you didn?t discribe the situation in which you talked to that girl, for a reader it is difficult to understand the situation. Might be that she just didn?t want to understand what you?ve been talking about? :wink:

Just kidding

Michael
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"Ho ho!" said the clown

[Yankee]

Hi Twin

The expression talk at is occasionally used in the US, but it's often got a negative connotation. And it definitely does not mean the same thing as talk to or talk with. If you talk at someone, it might be a situation in which you neither expect nor want the other person to do any talking. You may well be scolding or lecturing someone.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=talk+at&r=66

I'd say the expression blow away her cobwebs might be understood with adequate context, but it isn't an expression that is in everyday use in the US.

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Twin]

Thank you for your remarks.

I found it strange but she did not seem to know the idiom at all.

I looked it up in Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms and it turned out that the idiom is labelled British/Australian.