Carry out
Meaning: Accomplish, bring to a conclusion
Sentence: They carried out the mission
successfully.
Taken over
Meaning: Assume control, management, or possession
of
Sentence: The pilot told his copilot
to take over the controls.
Bring about
Meaning: Cause
Sentence: She hopes to bring about a change in his attitude.
Beat out
Meaning: Knock into shape by beating
Sentence:
She managed to beat out all the dents in the fender.
Beat out of
Meaning:
Cheat someone
of something
Sentence: He was always trying to beat the conductor out of the full train fare.
To fall back on something / fall back upon
Meaning: Rely on, have recourse to
Sentence:
I fall back on old friends
in time of need.
To fall through
Meaning: Fail, miscarry
Sentence: The proposed amendment
fell through.
Vested interests
Meaning: A personal stake in something
Sentence: She has a vested interest
in keeping the house in her name.
Turn to account
Meaning: Use for one's benefit
Sentence: He turned the delay to good account,
using the time to finish
correspondence.
To beat the air / beat the wind
Meaning: Continue to make futile attempts, fight to no purpose
Sentence: The candidates for office were so much alike that we thought
our vote amounted
to beating the air.
To foul of, (foul play)
Meaning: Unfair or treacherous action, especially involving violence
Sentence: The police suspected he had met with foul
play.
To keep open house
Meaning: To entertain friends
at all times, to be hospitable
Sentence: They keep an open house for artists and
writers.
To have a finger in the pie
Meaning: Have an interest
in or meddle in something
When they nominated me for the board, I'm sure Bill had a finger in the pie.
When all is said and done / After all is said and done
Meaning: In the end, nevertheless
Sentence: When all's said and done, the doctors
did what they could for Gordon,
but he was too ill to survive.
An axe to grind
Meaning: A selfish aim or motive
Sentence: The article criticized the new software,
but the author
had an axe to grind, as its manufacturer had fired his son.
Turn a new
leaf
Meaning: Make a fresh
start, change one's conduct or attitude for the better
Sentence: He promised the teacher he would turn over a new leaf and behave
himself in class.
Burn the candle at both ends
Meaning: Exhaust one's energies or resources by leading a hectic life
Sentence: Joseph's been burning the candle at both ends for weeks, working two jobs during the week and a third on weekends.
Leave in the lurch
Meaning: Desert or leave alone and in trouble, refuse to help or support someone
Sentence: He left me in the lurch when he didn't come over to help me although
he had promised to earlier in
the day.
Goes without saying
Meaning: Be self-evident, a matter of course
Sentence: It goes without
saying that success
is the product of hard work.
Like a red rag to a bull
Meaning: It is something that will inevitably make somebody angry or cross.
Sentence: Just mentioning his poor marks to him was
like a red rag to a bull.
Not a leg to stand on
Meaning: With no chance
of success
Sentence: He tried to get the town
to change the street lights,
but because there
was no money in the budget he found himself without a leg
to stand on.
Under the thumb
of
Meaning: Controlled or dominated by someone
Sentence: He's been under his mother's
thumb for years.
The writing on the wall / handwriting on the wall
Meaning: A warning or presentiment of danger
Sentence: The Company was losing money,
and seeing the handwriting on the wall,
she started to look
for another job.
To sow one's
wild oats
Meaning: Behave foolishly, immoderately or promiscuously when young
Sentence: Brad has spent the last couple of years sowing
his wild oats,
but now he seems ready to settle down.
Storm in a teacup
Meaning: If someone exaggerates a problem or makes a small problem seem far greater than it really is
Sentence: This matter is a storm in a teacup; it is
an argument about nothing
To keep late
hours
Meaning: Stay awake until late at night
Sentence: Never call Ethel
before noon; she keeps late hours and sleeps all morning.
To throw cold water on
Meaning: to discourage, to remove hope, deter
Sentence: Steve wanted to expand the business into China, but his boss threw cold water on the idea, and told him to focus on the
domestic business.
A cock and bull story
Meaning: An unbelievable tale that is intended to deceive; a tall tale
Sentence: Jack told us some cock and bull story
about getting lost.
To bear the brunt of
Meaning: Put up with the worst of some bad circumstance
Sentence: It was the secretary who had to bear the brunt of the doctor's
anger.
Tied to apron-strings of
Meaning: Wholly dependent on or controlled by a woman, especially one's mother or wife.
Sentence: At 25, he was still too tied to her apron
strings to get an apartment of his own.
To move heaven
and earth
Meaning: Exert the utmost effort
Sentence: I'd move heaven
and earth to get an apartment
here.
To blow one’s
own trumpet / blow one's
trumpet
Meaning: Vast in a boastful, self-promoting manner , brag about oneself
Sentence: Within two minutes
of meeting someone
new, Bill was blowing his own horn.
To rest on one's laurels
Meaning: Rely on one's past achievements, especially as a way of avoiding the work needed to advance one's status.
Sentence: Now that Julian's
in his eighties, he's decided
to rest on his laurels
and let some of the younger agents do the work.
In the doldrums
Meaning: Depressed, dull and listless
Sentence: Dean's in the doldrums for most of every winter.
Dole out / on the dole
Meaning: receiving payment from the government, as relief
Sentence: They couldn't afford
any luxuries while living on the dole.
At cross purposes
Meaning: misunderstand each other or have different or opposing objectives
Sentence: With aims or goals that conflict or
interfere with one another I'm afraid the two departments are working at cross purposes.
Succinctly
Meaning: in a brief and clearly expressed manner.
Sentence: I thought she expressed her feelings most
succinctly at the meeting.
Plain sailing
Meaning: Easy going; straightforward, unobstructed progress
Sentence: The first few months were difficult, but I think it's plain sailing from here on.
To bear the brunt of
Meaning: Put up with the worst of some bad circumstance
Sentence: It was the secretary who had to bear the brunt of the doctor's
anger.
To call a spade a spade
Meaning: speak clearly and directly about things, even embarrassing or unpleasant things.
Sentence: I'm not at all secretive, and I'm pretty
good at calling a spade a spade.
To fight shy of
Meaning: Avoid meeting or confronting someone
Sentence: I have had to fight
shy of invitations that would
exhaust time and spirits.
To cry over the spilt milk
Meaning: To dwell pointlessly on past misfortunes
Sentence: I know you wish that you'd handled the
project more efficiently, but there's no use crying over spilt milk.
To burn the candle at both ends
Meaning: Exhaust one's energies or resources by leading a hectic life.
Sentence: Joseph's
been burning the candle at both
ends for weeks,
working two jobs during the week
and a third on weekends.
To rob peter to pay Paul
Meaning: take something away from one person to pay another
Sentence:
Sometimes he was moving money from one account to another, robbing Peter to pay
Paul.
To take the bull by the horns
Meaning: to deal decisively with a difficult or dangerous situation.
Sentence: She decided to take the bull by the horns and try to solve the problem without any further delay.
Playing
to the gallery
Meaning: to do things that one thinks will be popular among many people instead of doing what one thinks is right.
Sentence: A governor who refuses to play to
the gallery
Holding
out the olive branch
Meaning: to do or say something in order to show that you want to end a disagreement with someone
Sentence: He held out an olive branch to the
opposition by releasing 42 political prisoners.
To make out
Meaning: Manage, get along
Sentence: I can't make out what she is trying to say.
The acid test
Meaning: An acid test is something that proves whether something is good, effective, etc,
Sentence: The acid test of a good party is how you
feel the morning after.
A bad hat
Meaning: Someone who deliberately stirs up trouble
Sentence: He is a bad hat, he always creates problems for others.
In a blue
funk
Meaning: In a state of panic or terror
Sentence: Just because the bride's mother
is late, you needn't get in a blue funk.
Set one's cap Down at heel
Meaning: Also, on someone's
heels. Immediately behind,
in close pursuit.
Sentence: Jean's dog was always at her heels.
To die in harness
Meaning: Expire while working, keep working to the end
Sentence: She knows she'll
never get promoted, but she wants to die in harness.
Dead as doornail / dead as a dodo or herring
Meaning: Totally or assuredly dead; also finished
Sentence: The cop announced that the body in the dumpster was dead as a doornail.
To carry the day
Meaning: Win, prevail
Sentence: At auctions the wealthiest bidders usually carry the day.
To pull oneself together
Meaning: Regain one's composure or self-control
Sentence: After that frightening episode, it took her a while to pull herself
together.
To rise from the ranks
/ come up through the ranks
Meaning: Work one's way to the top
Sentence: He's risen through
the ranks, starting
as a copyboy and ending up as senior editor.
To rub shoulders
Meaning: Associate or come into contact with another person.
Sentence: He rubbed shoulders with TV stars at the party
Thin end of the wedge
Meaning: The beginning of something that will become more serious, unpleasant
Sentence: The bank's decision to raise rates could
be the thin end of the wedge if other banks follow along.
Flash in the pan
Meaning: one that appears promising but turns out
to be disappointing or worthless.
Sentence: He only wrote one hit single; his music
career was pretty much a flash in the pan.
To keep at
Meaning: Persevere
or persist at doing something.
Sentence: If you keep at your Math, you'll
soon master it.
Keep at someone
Meaning: Nag, harass, or annoy someone
Sentence: You have to keep at Carl if you want him to do the work.
At one's beck and call
Meaning: Ready to comply with any wish or command
Sentence: He expects his employees to be at his beck and call day
and night.
Go
against the grain
Meaning: To go contrary to someone's natural disposition
Sentence:
Having to get up this
early in the morning really goes against my grain.
Bring grist to the mill
Meaning: useful experience, material, or knowledge.
Sentence: All this free publicity was grist to his mill
Upset the apple cart
Meaning: Spoil carefully laid plans
Sentence: Now don't upset
the apple cart by revealing where we're going.
Hoist on one's own petard
Meaning: have one's plans to cause trouble for
others backfire on
one.
Sentence: Progressives risk being hoist by their
own petard.
Live on the fat of the land
Meaning: The best or richest of anything
Sentence: The tiny upper class lived off the fat of the land while many of the poor were starving.
To have your cake and eat it too
Meaning: to have or enjoy the good parts of
something without having or dealing with the bad parts.
Sentence: I worked at home so I could raise my
family and still earn money – I guess I wanted to have my cake and eat it
too.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
Meaning: you are in a dilemma;
a difficult choice.
Sentence: Until I got this job I was between the devil and the
deep blue sea—borrowing from one credit card to make the minimum payment for
several others.
To be in hot water
Meaning: you get into trouble
Sentence: He found himself in hot water over his comments about
immigration.
To be on the carpet
Meaning: to criticize (someone) for doing something wrong
Sentence: He was/got called on the carpet for missing the
deadline.
It never rains but it pours
Meaning: when things go wrong, they go very wrong.
Sentence: The team not only lost the game but three of its best players were injured. It never rains but it pours.
