| | Joe gave me a call the other day. He said he had a good idea on how to learn several new words every day without much effort. His idea was this: put 5-6 words into your calendar every day, and when you have some free time, have a look at them again. I gave it a try. It worked. It still does. And it's very efficient. Recently I bought an idioms dictionary, and within a couple of days, would you believe it, I learnt the following expressions:
- Up in the air - uncertain, not yet decided
My band are hoping to
take a holiday next month, but our plans are still up in the air. - Walk down the aisle - get married
I will be the last
one to walk down the aisle, you bet. - Come alive - become interesting or exciting
The city of Kaposvár
comes alive after ten o'clock in the evening. - All along - from the beginning
Colombo knew who the
murderer was all along, but he pretended he didn't. - The apple of sb's eye - a person, usually a child, who sb
loves very much
I think I'm the apple
of my grandma's eye - she was the one who bought me that wonderful trumpet. - Out of the ark - extremely old or old-fashioned
Joe, you'd better
give that typewriter to somebody - it's straight out of the ark. - Cost/pay an arm and leg - cost/pay a lot of money
I'd like to buy a
drum kit, but I'm afraid it's going to cost me an arm and leg. - Armed to the teeth - carrying a lot of weapons or a lot of
things needed for a particular purpose
Fortunately, Joe is
always armed to the teeth with a lot of helpful books on writing. - Up in arms - very angry and protesting very strongly
University students
are up in arms over increased fares. - Be sb's for the asking -
be obtained simply by asking
If you want any of my
books, it's yours for the asking - Go astray - become lost/go in the wrong direction
Fortunately, the
gunman's shots went astray so that nobody got hurt. - Have sth on good authority - be able to believe sth because
you trust the person who gave you the information
I have it on good
authority that your wife is cheating on you. - Go AWOL - go missing without permission or explanation
Our guitarist went
AWOL in the middle of the tour - we had to call it off, eventually. - In the back of beyond - a lonely place that is a long way
from any town
My favourite village,
Iregszemcse, is in the back of beyond. - Get off my back - stop annoying me
Hey, I've done the
hoovering, so why don't you just get off my back? - Put one's back into sth - work very hard at sth
I really should put
my back into exercises in order to pass the proficiency exam. - (Not) your bag - sth that you are (not) interested in
Literature really
isn't my bag - I nearly failed that subject last semester. - Be badly off for sg - not have enough of sth
My mother studied
music at college, so I'm not badly off for books. - The bane of sb's life - a person or thing that makes sb's
life unpleasant or unhappy
That goddamn car is
always breaking down. It's the bane of my life. - Spot on - exactly right description or estimation
Your description was
spot on, Mrs. Eastaff. We caught the burglar. - Bang goes sth - sth is suddenly gone, lost etc
A friend of mine had
a car accident and suffered severe injuries, and bang went his chances of going
to university. - Go off with a bang - (e.g.: an event) very successful
Our last concert went
off with a bang - more than 400 people were present. - A baptism of fire - an unpleasant or frightening first
experience of sth
My first day in job
was a real baptism of fire because I had to shoulder too much
responsibility which I couldn't deal with. - Bare bones (of sth) - the main or basic facts of a matter
I had so little time
that I could only tell him the bare bones of the story. - Bare your soul to sb - tell sb your deepest feelings
What's the matter? Come on, you can bare
your soul to me.
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| | Posted 4/30/2007 9:22 PM - 148 Views - 2 eProps - 1 Comment
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