Functions : IDIOMS
( ENGLISH 2 )
MAY 7TH ,2015
UDEFA LANGUAGES CENTER
Idioms
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Explanation
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EXAMPLE
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A shot in the arm.
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Something which has a sudden
and positive effect on something.
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His son's visits were a real
shot in the arm for the old man.
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Give your right arm.
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To want something very much.
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When I'm in Germany I'd give
my right arm for some decent bacon.
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To chance your arm.
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To take a chance in order to
get something that you wants.
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He chanced his arm on the
horses.
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To cost an arm and a leg.
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Extremely
expensive.
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Running this web site costs
me an arm and a leg.
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Strong-arm
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To use force and threats to
make people do what you demand.
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The police used strong-arm
tactics to break up the protest.
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To twist someone's arm.
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To persuade someone to do
something they do not want to do.
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She didn't want to study
English, but the teacher twisted her arm.
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Back to back
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To be close together and
facing in opposite directions.
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British cities are full of
back to back housing.
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Behind someone's back.
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To do something without them
knowing, in a way which is unfair.
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I bought the car behind his
back and now he's really angry.
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To get off someone's back.
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To tell someone to stop
criticizing.
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If you got off her back
about studying she might do better.
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To get someone's back
up.
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To really
annoy someone.
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She does it deliberately,
even though she knows I don't like it, just to get my back up.
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To beat your brains out.
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To spend a lot of time
worrying about a problem and thinking about how to deal with it.
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I've been beating my brains
out trying to remember more brain idioms.
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To pick someone's brain.
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To ask for information or
advice from someone who knows more about a subject than you do.
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People often pick my brain
on the forum.
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Scatterbrain /
Scatterbrained
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A flighty and disorganized
person.
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She had to go home to get
her handbag. She's such
a scatterbrain!
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Brainy
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Clever.
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He always gets good marks,
he's so brainy.
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To have a bun in the oven.
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To be
pregnant.
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I didn't know whether she
had a bun in the oven, or she'd just put on weight.
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Calf length.
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Clothing or boots that end
at the middle point between the foot and the knee.
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She wore a calf length dress
to the party.
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Tongue in cheek.
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When you say something as a
joke, although you might appear to be serious.
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They said that he was
America's greatest President, although I suspect it was tongue in cheek.
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Keep your chin up.
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Something that you say to
someone in a difficult situation in order to encourage them to be brave and
to try not to be sad.
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I told her to keep her chin up
and everything would be ok in the end.
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To be all ears.
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To be waiting eagerly to
hear about something.
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When she heard there was an
important message for her, Spitz was all ears.
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To not believe your ears.
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To be unable to believe
something you hear.
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When he told me he had won
the lottery, I couldn't believe my ears!
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To go in one ear and
out the other.
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Used when someone isn't
paying attention to what is being said, or obviously has no intention of
acting upon it.
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I could tell he wasn't
really listening to my advice. It was going in one ear and out the other.
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The naked eye
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If something can be seen
with the naked eye, it can be seen without the help of a microscope.
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Amoebas are too small to be
seen with the naked eye.
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eye-catching
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When someone or something is
particularly attractive or noticeable.
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She wore an eye-catching blouse. |
In the blink of an eye.
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Extremely
quickly.
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In the blink of an eye, she
was gone.
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Run your eye over.
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To look quickly at the whole
of something.
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You should run your eye over
that message before you send it.
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To raise eyebrows.
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To shock people. |
Her decision to appear in
Playboy raised a few eyebrows.
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Keep your feet on the
ground.
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To have a realistic
understanding of your own ideas, actions, and decisions.
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It is hard to keep your feet
on the ground when you suddenly become famous.
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To stuff your face.
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To eat a lot, very quickly
and greedily. (negative)
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He's always stuffing his
face. No wonder he's so fat."
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To face up to
something.
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To accept a usually
unpleasant fact.
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We have to face up to the
fact that we are losing money hand over fist."
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Itchy feet.
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To be restless and have a
strong desire to travel.
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I've been living in Germany
for over 12 years, but now I'm getting itchy feet.
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To drag your feet.
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To be deliberately slow
(usually because you don't want to do something).
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I suspect the government is
dragging its feet over lowering taxes.
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To get cold feet.
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To suddenly become too frightened
to do something you had planned to do.
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They're getting married next
week - that's if he doesn't get cold feet!
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To be a butterfingers.
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Somebody who often drops
things
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He had the ball, but he
dropped it! What a butterfingers!
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Cross fingers.
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People, usually children,
sometimes cross their fingers behind their back when they're telling a lie thinking
it gives them immunity. (Not to be confused with keeping your fingers crossed
for luck.)
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It's no good crossing your
fingers, I want to know the truth!
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"Have a finger
in every pie."
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To be involved in lots of
different things.
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He was a very influential man;
he seemed to have a finger in every pie.
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To point the finger.
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To accuse someone of being
responsible for something bad that has happened.
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He knew that his next door neighbor
had pointed the finger at him.
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Pull your finger out.
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To start
working harder.
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To pass her exams she had to
pull her finger out.
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The hair of the dog.
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An alcoholic drink taken
when one has a hangover.
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I felt better after having a
hair of the dog. One whisky and the hangover was gone.
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To pull your hair
out.
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To be very worried about
something.
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She's got a test tomorrow
and she's pulling her hair out.
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To be a dab hand.
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To be very good at
something.
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She was a dab hand at
drawing.
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To be an old hand.
.
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To have a lot of experience
in something.
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He's an old hand at
difficult negotiations
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To have a free hand.
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To have the power to do what
you want.
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When it comes to what
appears on this web site, I have a free hand.
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To have the upper hand.
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To have power and control
over someone or a situation.
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In the UK the upper classes
still have the upper hand.
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To be caught red handed.
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To be discovered doing
something illegal or wrong.
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They caught him red-handed
as he tried to rob the bank
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To be a bighead
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We call someone a bighead if
they're acting in a conceited way.
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Ever since he came top of
the class, he's been a real bighead.
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Have a heart.
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Ask someone to be kinder to
you.
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Student: Have you marked my
homework yet?
Teacher: Have a heart! You only handed it in yesterday! |
Heartbroken
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Suffering from or exhibiting
overwhelming sorrow, grief, or disappointment.
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She was heartbroken when she
found out she hadn't got the job.
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Heartwarming
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Something that causes a
feeling gladness and pleasure.
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The story of the dog who
saved the life of its owner was such a heartwarming story.
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Warmhearted
person.
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Someone who is very kind and
generous.
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She'll help anyone who needs
it, she's such a warmhearted
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To pull someone's leg.
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To try to persuade someone
to believe something which is not true as a joke?
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She was very shocked until
she realized he was only pulling her leg.
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Many a slip twixt cup and lip
"
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Used to imply that even when
the outcome of an event seems certain, things can still go wrong.
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They thought they had the
contract all sewn up, but the client didn't sign in the end. There's many a
slip twixt cup and lip."
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To cross someone's mind.
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To think about something or
someone.
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Do I ever cross your mind?
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To have a big mouth.
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If someone says you have a
big mouth, they think you talk too much, especially about things that should
be secret
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When I told them he had a
girlfriend they looked surprised. Me and my big mouth!
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To be down in the mouth.
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To feel sad or depressed. |
Governments often turn a
blind eye to corruption.
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Word of mouth
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In speech but not in
writing.
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She was looking really down
in the mouth, so I asked her what the matter was.
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To breathe down sb's neck.
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To stay so close to someone,
watching everything that they do, that it's annoying.
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It's awful having a boss who
breathes down your neck all the time.
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To get it in the neck.
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To be punished or severely
criticized for something that you have.
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She'll get it in the neck
for not doing her homework.
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To stick your neck
out.
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To take a
risk.
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She really stuck her neck
out expanding the business during a recession.
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To get on someone's nerves.
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To annoy
someone.
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The teacher really gets on
my nerves when she goes on about correct spelling and grammar.
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Cut off your nose to
spite your face.
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To do something because you
are angry, even if it is not in your best interest.
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She should have gone with
them, she would have enjoyed it. She's just cutting off her nose to spite her
face.
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To powder your nose.
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When a woman says she is
going to "powder her nose", she means she is going to the toilet.
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Excuse me a moment, I'm just
going to powder my nose.
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To get up sb's nose.
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To annoy
someone.
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People who don't clean up
after their dogs really get up my nose.
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Turn your nose up at
something.
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To not like something
because you think it is not good enough for you.
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She turned her nose up at my
homemade cakes, she only likes shop bought ones.
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A shoulder to cry on
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Used to describe someone who
gives you sympathy when you are upset.
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When my mother died, I
really needed a shoulder to cry on.
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To have a thick skin.
/ To be thick skinned.
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If you are thick-skinned,
you do not notice or get upset when people criticize you.
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If you work as a
salesperson, you soon develop a thick skin.
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To have a thin skin.
/ To be thin skinned.
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If you are thin-skinned, you
get upset when people criticize you, or think people are critisizing you when
they aren't.
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Think skinned people
shouldn't go into politics.
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To jump down someone's throat.
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To react angrily to
something that someone says or does.
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Finding our content on other
web pages is a real kick in the teeth for us.
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To ram something down
someone's throat.
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To try and force
someone to accept something against their will.
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She's a vegetarian, but she
doesn't ram her views down your throat.
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To have a frog in your throat.
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To have a tight feeling in
your throat and be unable to speak clearly until you give a slight cough.
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Excuse me (cough cough),
I've got a bit of a frog in my throat.
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To have a green thumb.
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If you have a green thumb or
even green thumbs it means you are good at gardening, or growing plants.
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Her garden won many prizes.
People said she had green thumbs.
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To twiddle your thumbs.
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To do nothing or to have
nothing useful to do while you are waiting for something to happen.
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They kept me waiting for two
hours with nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs.
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Toe the line.
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To conform to certain rules
or standards.
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He'll have to learn to toe
the line, if he wants to get on in this organization.
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To keep on your toes.
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To keep on your toes, or to
keep someone else on their toes, makes them stay alert and conscious of
everything going on.
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Aladdin and Leo will have to
keep on their toes to find the Live Chat session.
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To bite your tongue.
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When you stop yourself from
saying something because you realize it might cause offense or be hurtful.
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Barack Obama said he
bit his tongue many times during his primary fight against Hillary
Clinton.
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Has the cat got your tongue?
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Something someone else might
say to you if you don't say anything to them.
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I know that you know the
answer to this question. What's the matter, has the cat got your tongue?
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The tip of your tongue.
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The feeling you get when you know something, but you just can't actually remember it. |
His name is on the tip of my
tongue.
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