Idiom of the Day
🔰a done deal
🇺🇸American English INFORMAL
☑️Meaning: A done deal is an agreement or a decision that is final.
✨For example:
➖It's a done deal so we can go ahead and start planning the details.
➖No-one knew about it, but the contract has been a done deal since the senator spoke to the minister last month.
💥Variety: This idiom is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Slang of the Day
🔰on the take
☑️Meaning: to be receiving illegal payments or bribes
💧For example:
🔹He seems to have a lot of money for a cop. He has to be on the take, doesn't he?
🔹It was a really corrupt period. Just about every member of the governing party was on the take.
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Slang of the Day
🔰nipper
☑️Meaning: a young child, esp. a young boy
✨For example:
➖When he was a little nipper Louis Hamilton raced go-carts, and now he's driving Formula One racing cars.
➖It's not easy teaching young nippers how to play football. They get too excited to stay in their positions and they run all over the field chasing each other and the ball.
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Slang of the Day
funk
🇺🇸American English
☑️Meaning: (in phrase be in a funk) an unhappy, depressed mood
✨For example:
➖He's been in a real funk since his girlfriend left him.
➖Everyone in the office has been in a funk since we heard that our company might be going bankrupt.
💥Variety: This slang term is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Slang of the Day
🔰pack it in
➕Meaning: to stop what you're doing, to quit
💧For example:
🔹The rain's not going to stop, so let's pack it in. We can finish the job tomorrow.
🔹Our restaurant isn't doing too well, so we might have to pack it in and try another type of business instead.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰a head start
☑️Meaning: If you have a head start, you start something ahead of others or with an advantage over others.
✨For example:
➖If you're born into a rich family, and you've had a good education, you're lucky enough to have had a head start in life, so don't waste it.
➖Marylin's beauty and natural grace gave her a big head start in the modelling and acting business.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰(something) occurs to you
☑️Meaning: If something occurs to you, you think of it.
✨For example:
➖I was surprised when I heard that Anne had quit. It had never occurred to me that she wasn't happy working here.
➖Has it ever occurred to you that your daughter's happiness is more important than what your friends might think if they know she's gay?
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Slang of the Day
🔰hooky | hookey
🇺🇸American English
☑️Meaning: (in phrase play hooky) to stay away from school or work without permission
✨For example:
🔹Let's play hooky tomorrow and go watch the golf. Things are pretty quiet at work anyway.
🔹When I was a kid, I was caught playing hookey when school inspectors nabbed us at the mall.
💥Variety: This slang term is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Slang of the Day
🔰chockablock | chock-a-block | chock-full
☑️Meaning: completely full of people or things, crammed full
✨For example:
➖My suitcase is chockablock with clothes and books and shoes and stuff. I couldn't possibly get anything else in there.
➖@Englishoftheday is chock-full of great stuff for learners of English.
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Idiom of the Day
💥red tape
☑️Meaning: Strict adherence to rules and regulations so that a procedure seems to take longer than necessary.
✨For example:
➖It takes a long time to set up a company in some countries because of all the red tape involved in getting government permits.
➖It took two weeks to get visas for our aid workers because of all the red tape.
📌Origin: Probably related to the fact that bundles of official government documents are often tied together with red tape.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰on the ball
INFORMAL
☑️Meaning: If you're on the ball, you're alert and you know what's going on around you.
✨For example:
🔹I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm not really on the ball today.
🔹My brother is always on the ball, so it's hard to trick him or catch him unawares.
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Slang of the Day
🔰jab
☑️Meaning: an injection with a hypodermic syringe
✨For example:
▪️I went to see my doctor yesterday to get a flu jab.
▪️It's time for our kids to get another set of vaccination jabs. I'll take them to the clinic in the morning.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day
💥end up
☑️Meaning: If you end up being somewhere, or doing something, it's because of decisions you've made in the past.
💧For example:
✨end up
🔹 If Jimmy keeps taking drugs, he'll end up in jail or dead.
✨end up doing sth
🔹 If you don't study hard, you could end up doing a job you don't like much.
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Slang of the Day
🔰upchuck
🇺🇸American English
☑️Meaning: to vomit, throw up
✨For example:
🔘I ate so much chocolate cake that I nearly upchucked the lot right there.
🔘The last time Jimmy got drunk he upchucked all over the back seat of his friend's car. His friend wasn't too happy about it.
✅Variety: This slang term is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day
🔰cross out
☑️Meaning: If you cross something out, you draw a line through it with a pen or a pencil, usually because it's wrong or is no longer necessary.
💧For example:
✨cross sth out
🔹If you make a mistake, cross it out and write down what you think is correct instead.
✨cross out sth
🔹When guests arrive, cross out their names on the guest list so that we know they're here.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰a quantum leap
☑️Meaning: A quantum leap is a major step in the development of something, or in the improvement of something.
✨For example:
➖The discovery of penicillin was a quantum leap in the treatment of bacterial infections.
➖The election of an African-American president amounted to a quantum leap forward for racial equality.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰joie de vivre
💢Meaning: If you have joie de vivre, you feel the joy of living.
✨For example:
▪️People loved her because of her joie de vivre and the fact that she was such great fun to be with.
▪️A positive, easy-going attitude seems to go hand-in-hand with a natural joie de vivre.
✔️Note: This phrase is borrowed from French and can be translated as "joy of life".
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Idiom of the Day
🔰the jury is still out
☑️Meaning: We can say the jury is still out when a decision still hasn't been made about something.
✨For example:
➖It was a terrible mistake, and the jury's still out on whether Bob will lose his job over it, or not.
➖The jury's still out on who's going to be the new CEO, but we should find out soon.
💥Origin: Metaphorical, and based on the fact that in many legal trials, the result of the trial isn't known until a jury has finished discussing the case and making a decision. Until then, we say that "the jury is still out".
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Idiom of the Day
📚ahead of the game
☑️Meaning: You are ahead of the game if you have an advantage over your competitors in any activity in which you try to do better than others, such as in business, academia, sports, etc.
✨For example:
➖We got ahead of the game by employing the best people in our research laboratories.
➖You'll be ahead of the game when you start at university if you do a lot of preparation before the term begins.
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Slang of the Day
🔰jollies
🇺🇸American English
☑️Meaning: fun, thrills, enjoyment
🔹For example:
➖I can't see the attraction myself, but Bill says he gets his jollies from building and flying model planes and helicopters.
➖A lot of young people get their jollies from doing adventure stuff like white-water rafting and bungee-jumping.
💥Variety: This slang term is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰the upper crust
☑️Meaning: If you are one of the upper crust, you are a member of society's highest class.
✨For example:
➖If Laura was really part of the upper crust, she wouldn't need to borrow money all the time, would she?
➖Marge does a great imitation of an upper-crust "society queen". It's really funny, and her upper-crust accent is perfect.
💥Note:
If used to modify a noun or a noun phrase, a hyphen should be added, as in "upper-crust party".
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Idiom of the Day
🔰the ball's in your court
☑️Meaning: If someone you're negotiating with says "the ball's in your court", they think it's your turn to make a move or make an offer.
✨For example:
🔹We've offered him ten thousand dollars a month, so the ball's in his court now.
🔹They know our position, so the ball's in their court. If they want to pursue the matter, they'll have to make the next move.
💥Origin: Metaphorical, from sports such as tennis and badminton in which players take turns to hit a ball over a net into each other's end of the court.
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Phrasal Verb of the Day
💥laze around
☑️Meaning: to relax and do very little
✨For example:
➖My son would laze around in front of the TV all day if we let him.
➖Instead of doing exciting things like kite-surfing and jet-skiing, my daughter just lazed around the pool tanning herself and chatting on her phone.
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Slang of the Day
💥hang | hang out
☑️Meaning: to spend time with
✨For example:
➖I'm goin' down the park to hang with my friends.
➖Hey, you girls. Why don't you hang out with me and the guys for a while?
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Idiom of the Day
🔰an even break
🇺🇸American English
☑️Meaning: If you get an even break, you get a fair opportunity to succeed in your ambition or to achieve your goals.
✨For example:
🔹All Monica needs is an even break and she could be one of the country's top models.
🔹He says he's never had an even break in life and that's why he's never achieved much.
📝Variety: This idiom is typically used in American English but may be used in other varieties of English too.
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Idiom of the Day
📗get a word in edgeways | edgewise
☑️Meaning: If you can't get a word in edgeways, you can't say anything because someone else is talking so much.
✨For example:
🔹Cindy got so excited when she was talking that nobody else could get a word in edgeways.
🔹I'd go to the meetings more often if I could get a word in edgeways.
📝Note: The American form of this idiom is "to get a word in edgewise".
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Idiom of the Day
🔰a necessary evil
☑️Meaning: If you say something is a necessary evil, you don't like it but you understand that it has to be accepted sometimes or it has to exist.
✨For example:
💥Sandra says money's a necessary evil. She thinks it causes many problems, but she can't imagine how the world could work without it.
💥My brother regards exercise as a necessary evil. He hates doing it, but he knows he has to do it if he wants to stay healthy.
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Idiom of the Day
🔰wide of the mark
☑️Meaning: If something is wide of the mark, it isn't true or accurate, or it misses the target.
✨For example:
🔹The manager expected sales to double this year, but his prediction was wide of the mark. They only increased by ten per cent.
🔹Ronaldo's first shot was wide of the mark, but his second one went right into the back of the net for a goal.
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Slang of the Day
🔰meathead
Offensive
☑️Meaning: a stupid person
✨For example:
🔹How did a meathead like that guy get elected to represent the people in his state?
🔹I was watching the tennis yesterday and some meathead yelled out just as Rafael was serving. The security guys found him and threw him out.
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