caused another person to experience.(Proverb Note the variation in the ex-amples See also have the shoe on theother foot.) The teacher is taking acourse in summer school and is finding outwhat it’s like when the shoe is on the otherfoot When the policeman was arrested,he learned what it was like to have the shoeon the other foot.
shook upupset; shocked (Slang See alsoshake someone or something up.) Relax,man! Don’t get shook up! I always getshook up when I see something like that.
shoot for somethingto try to do something;to attempt to do something; to aimtoward a goal The industrious studentshot for success The worker shot for a $2per hour raise.
shoot from the hip 1 to fire a gun that isheld at one’s side, against one’s hip (Thisincreases one’s speed in firing a gun.)
When I lived at home on the farm, my fa-ther taught me to shoot from the hip Iquickly shot the snake before it bit myhorse I’m glad I learned to shoot from thehip.2 to speak directly and frankly (In-formal.) John has a tendency to shootfrom the hip, but he generally speaks thetruth Don’t pay any attention to John.He means no harm It’s just his nature toshoot from the hip.
shoot one’s mouth offto boast or talk toomuch; to tell someone’s secrets (Slang.)Don’t pay any attention to Bob He’s al-ways shooting his mouth off TOh, Sally!Stop shooting off your mouth! You don’tknow what you’re talking about.
shoot something out 1 to stick, throw, orthrust something outward The dia-mond shot bright shafts of light out whenthe sun fell on it TThe little girl shot outher tongue at the teacher. 2 to settle amatter by the use of guns (Slang Typi-cal of gangster or western movies.) Billand the cowboy—with whom he had beenarguing—went out in the street and shot itout TDon’t they know they can settle aproblem by talking? They don’t need toshoot out the problem when they can talkit over.
shoot the breezeto spend time chatting.(Slang See also the following entry.)
I went over to Bob’s place and shot thebreeze for about an hour Don’t spend somuch time shooting the breeze Get towork!
shoot the bull to spend time chattingabout one’s accomplishments, especiallywith others who are doing the same.(Slang See also the previous entry.)
Those guys out in the backyard are just sit-ting around shoosit-ting the bull It wasraining, so everybody spent the day indoorsdrinking beer and shooting the bull.
shoot the worksto do everything; to useup everything; to bet everything (Slang.)Shall I bet half our money, or shall Ishoot the works? We shot the works atthe carnival—spent every cent we broughtwith us.
shop around (for something)to shop at dif-ferent stores to find what you want at thebest price I’ve been shopping aroundfor a new car, but they are all priced toohigh You can find a bargain, but you’llhave to shop around.
short and sweetbrief (and pleasant be-cause of briefness) That was a goodsermon—short and sweet I don’t carewhat you say, as long as you make it shortand sweet.
short for something<[of a word] being ashortened form of a word or phrase.>
Photo is short for photograph Dave isshort for David.
short of something not having enough ofsomething I wanted to bake a cake, butI was short of eggs Usually at the endof the month, I’m short of money.
ashot in the arma boost; something thatgives someone energy (Informal.)
Thank you for cheering me up It was areal shot in the arm Your friendly greet-ing card was just what I needed—a realshot in the arm.
ashot in the darka random or wild guessor try (Slang.) I don’t know how Iguessed the right answer It was just a shotin the dark I was lucky to hire such a
Trang 2good worker as Sally When I hired her, itwas just a shot in the dark.
shot through with something containingsomething; interwoven, intermixed, orfilled with something The rose was alovely pink shot through with streaks ofwhite John’s comments are often shotthrough with sarcasm I want a well-marbled steak—one shot through with fat.
shot to hellGo to (all) shot to hell.ashotgun weddinga forced wedding
(In-formal From imagery of the bride’s fa-ther having threatened the bridegroomwith a shotgun to force him to marry.)
Mary was six months pregnant when shemarried Bill It was a real shotgun wed-ding Bob would never have marriedJane if she hadn’t been pregnant Jane’s fa-ther saw to it that it was a shotgunwedding.
should have stood in bedshould havestayed in bed What a horrible day! Ishould have stood in bed The minute Igot up and heard the news this morning,I knew I should have stood in bed.
shoulder to shoulderside by side; with ashared purpose The two armies foughtshoulder to shoulder against the jointenemy The strikers said they wouldstand shoulder to shoulder against themanagement.
shove one’s way somewhereto make a paththrough a crowd by pushing The im-patient man shoved his way through thecrowd The reporter shoved her way tothe front of the crowd.
shove someone or something down someone’sthroat and ram someone or somethingdown someone’s throat; force someone or
somethingdown someone’s throatto forcesomeone or something on someone.(Slang and a little rude.) I don’t wantany more insurance, and I don’t want any-one to shove any insurance down mythroat Mary isn’t invited to my party,and I don’t wish for anyone to ram herdown my throat! Someone is always try-ing to force some stupid propaganda downmy throat.
show-and-tell a trivial presentation ofsomething of little interest (Refers to thename of a classroom period in the lowergrades where children bring somethinginteresting into the classroom and showit to the rest of the class.) I wouldn’tcall that meeting useful It was sort of agrown-up show-and-tell After theshow-and-tell session where the authortalked about his book, we all went into thehall and had refreshments.
show good faithto demonstrate good in-tentions or good will I’m certain thatyou showed good faith when you signed thecontract Do you doubt that she is show-ing good faith?
show off to do things in a way that ismeant to attract attention Please stopshowing off! You embarrass me John isalways showing off to his girlfriend.
ashow of handsa display of raised hands[in a group of people] that can becounted for the purpose of votes or sur-veys We were asked to vote for the can-didates for captain by a show of hands
Jack wanted us to vote on paper, not by ashow of hands, so that we could have a se-cret ballot.
show one’s handto reveal one’s intentionsto someone (From card games.) Idon’t know whether Jim is intending tomarry Jane or not He’s not one to show hishand If you want to get a raise, don’tshow the boss your hand too soon.
show one’s (true) colorsto show what oneis really like or what one is really think-ing Whose side are you on, John? Comeon Show your colors It’s hard to tellwhat Mary is thinking She never showsher true colors.
show one to one’s seatGo to show someoneto a seat.
show signs of somethingto show hints orindications of something I let the horserun at full speed until it began to showsigns of tiring Sally is showing signs ofgoing to sleep.
show someone or something off to displaysomeone or something so that the bestfeatures are apparent TMrs Williams
Trang 3was showing off her baby to the neighbors.
Bill drove around all afternoon showinghis new car off.
show someone the ropes to tell or showsomeone how something is to be done
Since this was my first day on the job, themanager spent a lot of time showing methe ropes Take some time and show thenew boy the ropes.
show someone to a seatand show one to
one’sseatto lead or direct someone to aplace to sit May I show you to yourseat, sir? The ushers showed us to ourseats politely and efficiently.
show someone (to) the doorand see
some-oneto the doorto lead or take someoneto the door or exit After we finishedour talk, she showed me to the door Billand I finished our chat as he saw me to thedoor.
show someone upto make someone’s faultsor shortcomings apparent TJohn’s ex-cellent effort really showed up Bill, whodidn’t try very hard at all John is alwaystrying to show someone up to make him-self look better.
show someone up as somethingto reveal thatsomeone is really something (else)
The investigation showed her up as afraud The test showed the banker upas unqualified.
show something to good advantageto dis-play the best features of something; todisplay something so that its best featuresare apparent Put the vase in the cen-ter of the table and show it to good ad-vantage Having and using a large vo-cabulary shows your intelligence to goodadvantage.
shuffle off this mortal coilto die (Of-ten jocular or formal euphemism Not of-ten used in consoling someone.)
Cousin Fred shuff led off this mortal coilafter drinking a jug full of rat poison
When I shuff le off this mortal coil, I wantto go out in style—bells, f lowers, and along, boring funeral.
shut someone upto silence someone Oh,shut yourself up! TWill you please shut upthat crying baby!
shut something downGo to close somethingdown.
shut the door on someone or somethingand
close the door on someone or something 1.
to close the door in order to keep some-one or something out Bob opened thedoor, and when he saw it was Mary, heclosed the door on her “Don’t shut thedoor on me!” screamed Mary. 2 [with
something] to terminate, exclude, or
ob-struct something Your bad attitudeshuts the door on any future cooperationfrom me The bad service at that storecloses the door on any more business frommy company.
shuttle someone or something from person topersonand shuttle someone or somethingfrom place to placeto move or passsomeone or something from person toperson; to move or pass someone orsomething from place to place Myphone call was shuttled from person to per-son Mary shuttled her children fromhome to school to practice.
shuttle someone or something from place toplaceGo to shuttle someone or somethingfrom person to person.
shy away (from someone or something) toavoid someone or something The dogshies away from John since he kicked it
I can understand why the dog would shyaway I shy away from eating onions Ithink I’m allergic to them.
sick and tired of someone or somethingdis-gusted and annoyed with someone orsomething I’m sick and tired of Annand her whistling We are all sick andtired of this old car.
sick as a dogGo to (as) sick as a dog.
sick in bedremaining in bed while (one is)ill Tom is sick in bed with the f lu
He’s been sick in bed for nearly a week.
side against someoneto be against some-one; to take sides against someone Ithought you were my friend! I neverthought you would side against me! Thetwo brothers were always siding againsttheir sister.
Trang 4side with someoneto join with someone; totake someone else’s part; to be on some-one’s side Why is it that you always sidewith him when he and I argue? I neverside with anybody I form my ownopinions.
sight for sore eyes a welcome sight.(Folksy.) Oh, am I glad to see you here!You’re a sight for sore eyes I’m sure hun-gry This meal is a sight for sore eyes.
asign of things to comeGo to aharbin-ger of things to come.
sign one’s own death warrantto do some-thing (knowingly) that will most likelyresult in severe trouble (As if one wereordering one’s own execution.) Iwouldn’t ever gamble a large sum ofmoney That would be signing my owndeath warrant The killer signed his owndeath warrant when he walked into the po-lice station and gave himself up.
sign on the dotted lineto place one’s sig-nature on a contract or other importantpaper (The line is usually straight andsolid.) This agreement isn’t properlyconcluded until we both sign on the dottedline Here are the papers for the pur-chase of your car As soon as you sign onthe dotted line, that beautiful, shiny au-tomobile will be all yours!
sign on (with someone)to sign an agree-ment to work with or for someone, es-pecially on a ship The sailor signed onwith Captain Smith Hardly any othersailor was willing to sign on.
signal (to) someone to do something [forsomeone] to give someone a command orinstruction using a signal The trafficcop signaled me to stop Bill signaled theother driver to pull over to the side of theroad.
signed, sealed, and deliveredformallyand officially signed; [for a formal doc-ument to be] executed Here is the deedto the property—signed, sealed, and de-livered I can’t begin work on this pro-ject until I have the contract signed, sealed,and delivered.silent as the deadGo to (as) silent as thedead.silent as the graveGo to (as) silent as thegrave.
silly as a gooseGo to (as) silly as a goose.
silly seasonthe time of year, usually latein the summer, when there is a lack ofimportant news and newspapers containarticles about unimportant or trivialthings instead It must be the silly sea-son There’s a story here about peculiarlyshaped potatoes There’s a piece on thefront page about people with big feet Talkabout the silly season!
simmer downto get quiet or calm (In-formal.) Hey, you guys! Simmer down!Stop all the noise and go to sleep! I’mvery busy now Please come back in a fewhours when things have simmered downa bit.
since time immemorialsince a very longtime ago My hometown has had a bigparade on the Fourth of July since time im-memorial Since time immemorial, thetrees have blossomed each spring.
sing a different tuneand sing anothertune to change one’s manner, usuallyfrom bad to good (Almost the same asdance to another tune.) When shelearned that I was a bank director, she be-gan to sing a different tune You will singanother tune as soon as you find out howright I am!
sing another tuneGo to sing a differenttune.
sing someone’s praisesto praise someonehighly and enthusiastically The boss issinging the praises of his new secretary
The theater critics are singing the praisesof the young actor.
single fileGo to (in) single file.
sink in[for knowledge] to be understood.(Also literal Informal.) I heard whatyou said, but it took a while for it to sinkin I pay careful attention to everythingI hear in class, but it usually doesn’t sinkin.
sink into despair[for someone] to grieveor become depressed After losing allmy money, I sank into despair There is
Trang 5no need to sink into despair Everything isgoing to be all right.
sink one’s teeth into something 1 to take abite of some kind of food, usually a spe-cial kind of food I can’t wait to sinkmy teeth into a nice juicy steak Lookat that chocolate cake! Don’t you want tosink your teeth into that? 2 to get achance to do, learn, or control some-thing That appears to be a very chal-lenging assignment I can’t wait to sink myteeth into it Being the manager of thisdepartment is a big task I’m very eager tosink my teeth into it.
sink or swimto fail or succeed After I’vestudied and learned all I can, I have to takethe test and sink or swim It’s too lateto help John now It’s sink or swim for him.
sit around (somewhere) to sit somewhereand relax or do nothing; to sit idly some-where Tom likes to sit around the housein shorts and a T-shirt on hot days Toomany people are just sitting around doingnothing at my office.
sit at someone’s feet to admire someonegreatly; to be influenced by someone’steaching; to be taught by someone
Jack sat at the feet of Picasso when he wasstudying in Europe Tom would love tosit at the feet of the musician YehudiMenuhin.
sit back and let something happento relaxand not interfere with something; to letsomething happen without playing a partin it I can’t just sit back and let youwaste all our money! Don’t worry Justsit back and let things take care ofthemselves.
sit bolt uprightto sit up straight Tonysat bolt upright and listened to what theteacher was saying to him After sittingbolt upright for almost an hour in thatcrowded airplane, I swore I would nevertravel again.
sit (idly) byto remain inactive when otherpeople are doing something; to ignore asituation that calls for help Bob sat idlyby even though everyone else was hard atwork I can’t sit by while all those peo-ple need food.
sit in for someoneto take someone’s else’splace in a specific activity (The activityusually involves being seated.) I can’tbe at the meeting Thursday Will you sitin for me? Sorry, I can’t sit in for you.John is also going to be absent, and I amsitting in for him.
sit in (on something)to witness or observesomething without participating (Usu-ally involves being seated.) I can’t signup for the history class, but I have permis-sion to sit in on it I asked the professorif I could sit in.
sit on its hands[for an audience] to refuseto applaud We saw a very poor perfor-mance of the play The audience sat on itshands for the entire play The audiencejust sat on its hands.
sit on one’s handsto do nothing; to fail tohelp When we needed help from Mary,she just sat on her hands We need thecooperation of everyone You can’t sit onyour hands!
sit on someone or somethingto hold someoneor something back; to delay someone orsomething (Also literal Informal.)
The project cannot be finished because thecity council is sitting on the final approval.
Ann deserves to be promoted, but themanager is sitting on her because of adisagreement.
sit on the fencenot to take sides in a dis-pute; not to make a clear choice betweentwo possibilities (Also literal.) WhenJane and Tom argue, it is well to sit on thefence and then you won’t make either ofthem angry No one knows which of thecandidates Joan will vote for She’s sittingon the fence.
sit something outnot to participate in some-thing; to wait until something is over be-fore participating Oh, please play withus Don’t sit it out TI’m tired of playingcards, so I think I’ll sit out this game.
sit through somethingto witness or endureall of something The performance wasso bad that I could hardly sit through it.
You can’t expect small children to sitthrough a long movie.
Trang 6sit tightto wait; to wait patiently (Infor-mal This does not necessarily refer to sit-ting.) Just relax and sit tight I’ll be rightwith you We were waiting in line for thegates to open when someone came out andtold us to sit tight because it wouldn’t bemuch longer before we could go in.
sit up and take noticeto become alert andpay attention A loud noise from thefront of the room caused everyone to sit upand take notice The company would-n’t pay any attention to my complaints.When I had my lawyer write them a let-ter, they sat up and took notice.
sit up with someoneto stay with someonethrough the night, especially with a sickor troubled person or with someone whois waiting for something I had to sit upwith my younger sister when she was ill
I sat up with Bill while he waited for anoverseas telephone call.
sit with someone 1 to stay with someone; tosit up with someone Sally was upset, soI sat with her for a while My uncle satwith me my first day in the hospital.2 tostay with and care for one or more chil-dren; to baby-sit for someone I hiredMrs Wilson to sit with the children Wecouldn’t go out for dinner because wecouldn’t find anyone to sit with the kids.
asitting ducksomeone or something vul-nerable to attack, physical or verbal
(Pre-ceded by be, become, seem like, or act like.
See also asitting target.) You are a sit-ting duck out there Get in here where theenemy cannot fire at you The senatorwas a sitting duck because of his positionon school reform.
sitting on a powder kegin a risky or ex-plosive situation; in a situation wheresomething serious or dangerous may
happen at any time (Informal A pow-der keg is a keg of gunpowpow-der.) Thingsare very tense at work The whole office issitting on a powder keg The fire at theoil field seems to be under control for now,but all the workers there are sitting on apowder keg.
(sitting) on top of the worldfeeling won-derful; glorious; ecstatic Wow, I feel on
top of the world Since he got a new job,he’s on top of the world.
sitting prettyliving in comfort or luxury;in a good situation (Informal.) Myuncle died and left enough money for meto be sitting pretty for the rest of my life.
Now that I have a good-paying job, I’msitting pretty.
asitting targetsomeone or something thatis in a position that is easily attacked (Seealso asitting duck.) The old man wasa sitting target for the burglars He livedalone and did not have a telephone Peo-ple recently hired will be sitting targets ifthe company needs to cut back.
six of one and half a dozen of the other
about the same one way or another Itdoesn’t matter to me which way you do it.It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.
What difference does it make? They’reboth the same—six of one and half adozen of the other.
sixth sensea supposed power to know orfeel things that are not perceptible by thefive senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste,and touch I have a sixth sense that toldme to avoid going home by my usual route.Later I discovered there had been a fatalaccident on it Jane’s sixth sense de-manded that she not trust Tom, eventhough he seemed honest enough.
size someone or something up to observesomeone or something to get informa-tion; to check someone or something Thecomedian sized the audience up and de-cided not to use his new material TI liketo size up a situation before I act.
skate on thin iceto be in a risky situation.(Also literal See also on thin ice.) I tryto stay well informed so I don’t end upskating on thin ice when the teacher asksme a question You are skating on thinice when you ask me that!
a skeleton in the closetand skeletonsin the closeta hidden and shocking se-cret You can ask anyone about how re-liable I am I don’t mind I don’t have anyskeletons in the closet My uncle was injail for a day once That’s our family’sskeleton in the closet.
Trang 7skin and bonesGo to nothing but skin andbones.
skin someone aliveto be very angry withsomeone; to scold someone severely.(Folksy.) I was so mad at Jane that Icould have skinned her alive If I don’tget home on time, my parents will skin mealive.
skip bailGo to jump bail.
skip out (on someone or something)to sneakaway from someone or some event; toleave someone or an event in secret.(Slang.) I heard that Bill skipped outon his wife I’m not surprised I thoughthe should have skipped out long ago.
skip ropeto jump over an arc of rope thatis passed beneath one’s feet then overone’s head, repeatedly The childrenskipped rope on the playground Theboxer skipped rope while training.
Thesky’s the limit.There is no limit to thesuccess that can be achieved or themoney that can be gained or spent Ifyou take a job with us, you’ll find the pro-motion prospects very good The sky’s thelimit, in fact The insurance salesmenwere told that the sky was the limit whenit came to potential earnings.
slack off 1 to taper off; to reduce gradu-ally Business tends to slack off duringthe winter months The storms begin toslack off in April.2 to become less active;to become lazy or inefficient Near theend of the school year, Sally began to slackoff, and her grades showed it John gotfired for slacking off during the busyseason.
a slap in the facean insult; an act thatcauses disappointment or discourage-ment Losing the election was a slap inthe face for the club president Failing toget into a good college was a slap in the faceto Tim after his years of study.
slap someone down to rebuke or rebuffsomeone, possibly with actual slapping. You may disagree with her, but youneedn’t slap her down like that I onlyasked you what time it was! There’s noneed to slap me down! What a rotten hu-mor you’re in!
slap someone on the wristGo to give some-onea slap on the wrist.
slap someone’s wristGo to give someone aslap on the wrist.
slap something togetherGo to throw some-thingtogether.
slated for somethingscheduled for some-thing (Refers to a schedule written on aslate.) John was slated for Friday’s game,but he couldn’t play with the team Annis slated for promotion next year.
slated to do something scheduled to dosomething John was slated to play ballFriday Who is slated to work thisweekend?
aslave to somethingsomeone who is underthe control of something; someone whois controlled by something (Preceded by
be, become, seem like, or act like.) Maryis a slave to her job Bill is a slave to hisdrug addiction.
sleep into oversleep; to sleep late in themorning If you sleep in again, you’ll getfired I really felt like sleeping in thismorning.
sleep like a babyGo to sleep like a log.
sleep like a logand sleep like a baby
to sleep very soundly Everyone in ourfamily sleeps like a log, so no one heard thefire engines in the middle of the night
Nothing can wake me up I usually sleeplike a baby.
sleep on somethingto think about some-thing overnight; to weigh a decision over-night I don’t know whether I agree todo it Let me sleep on it I slept on it, andI’ve decided to accept your offer.
sleep something offto sleep while the effectsof liquor or drugs pass away Johndrank too much and went home to sleepit off TBill is at home sleeping off the ef-fects of the drug they gave him.
sleep with someone 1 to share a bed withsomeone Do I have to sleep with my lit-tle brother? Many little boys have tosleep with their brothers.2 to copulatewith someone (Euphemistic.) I hear
Trang 8Sam’s sleeping with Sally now Whomdid you say he slept with?
aslice of the cakea share of something.(Also literal.) There’s not much workaround and so everyone must get a slice ofthe cake The company makes hugeprofits and the workers want a slice of thecake.
slick as a whistleGo to (as) slick as awhistle.
slip away and slip off; slip out to goaway or escape quietly or in secret Islipped away when no one was looking
Let’s slip off somewhere and have a littletalk I’ll try to slip out for an hour or twowhen Tom is asleep.
slip offGo to slip away.
aslip of the tonguean error in speakingwhere a word is pronounced incorrectly,or where something that the speaker didnot mean to say is said I didn’t meanto tell her that It was a slip of the tongue.
I failed to understand the instructionsbecause the speaker made a slip of thetongue at an important point.
slip one’s mind[for something that was tobe remembered] to be forgotten Imeant to go to the grocery store on the wayhome, but it slipped my mind My birth-day slipped my mind I guess I wanted toforget it.
slip out 1 [for secret information] to berevealed I asked her to keep our en-gagement secret, but she let it slip out
I didn’t mean to tell It just slipped out.2.
Go to slip away.
slip through someone’s fingersto get awayfrom someone; for someone to lose track(of something or someone) (Also lit-eral.) I had a copy of the book you want,but somehow it slipped through my fingers.
There was a detective following me, butI managed to slip through his fingers.
slip upto make an error (Informal Also
without up.) Try as hard as you can todo it right and not slip up Everythingwas going fine until the last minute whenI slipped up.
slippery as an eelGo to (as) slippery asan eel.
Slow and steady wins the race.Delib-erateness and determination will lead tosuccess, or (literally) a reasonable pacewill win a race (Proverb.) I worked myway through college in six years Now Iknow what they mean when they say,“Slow and steady wins the race.” Annwon the race because she started off slowlyand established a good pace The otherrunners tried to sprint the whole distance,and they tired out before the final lap.Ann’s trainer said, “You see! I told you!Slow and steady wins the race.”
slow as molasses in JanuaryGo to (as)slow as molasses in January.
slow goingthe rate of speed when one ismaking progress It was slow going atfirst, but I was able to finish the projectby the weekend Getting the heavy rocksout of the field is slow going.
slow on the draw 1 slow in drawing agun (Slang Compare this with quick onthe draw.Cowboy and gangster talk.)
Bill got shot because he’s so slow on thedraw The gunslinger said, “I have tobe fast If I’m slow on the draw, I’m dead.”
2 and slow on the uptakeslow to fig-ure something out; slow-thinking.(Slang Compare this with quick on thedraw.) Sally didn’t get the joke becauseshe’s sort of slow on the draw Bill—who’s slow on the uptake—didn’t get thejoke until it was explained to him.
slow on the uptakeGo to slow on thedraw.
slow someone or something downGo to slowsomeone or somethingup.
slow someone or something upand slow
some-one or something downto cause someoneor something to reduce speed (The
phrases with up are informal.) I’m ina hurry Don’t try to slow me down T
Please slow up the train There are sheepnear the track.
slower and slowerat a decreasing rate ofspeed; slow and then even slower Thecar is going slower and slower and will stop
Trang 9soon The dog’s breathing got slower andslower as it went to sleep.
slower than molasses in JanuaryGo to(as) slow as molasses in January.
slow(ly) but sure(ly) slowly but with apurpose; slowly and deliberately (The
ex-pression without the -ly is informal.)
Slowly but surely, the little train reachedthe top of the mountain Progress wasslow but sure Someday we would befinished.
sly as a foxGo to (as) sly as a fox.
smack-dab in the middle right in themiddle (Informal.) I want a big help-ing of mashed potatoes with a glob of but-ter smack-dab in the middle Tom andSally were having a terrible argument, andI was trapped—smack-dab in the middle.
small fry 1 unimportant people (Small fry
are small, juvenile fish.) The policehave only caught the small fry The leaderof the gang is still free You people arejust small fry! I want to talk to the boss.
2 children Peter’s taking the small fryto the zoo We should take the small fryto the pantomime.
small hours (of the night) and weehours (of the night)the hours imme-diately after midnight The dance wenton into the small hours of the night Jimgoes to bed in the wee hours and gets upat lunchtime.
thesmall printand thefine printthe partof a document that is not easily noticed,often because of the smallness of theprint, and that often contains importantinformation You should have read thesmall print before signing the contract
You should always read the fine print in aninsurance policy.
small-timesmall; on a small scale (Infor-mal.) Our business is small-time justnow, but it’s growing He’s a small-timecrook.
smear campaign (against someone)a cam-paign aimed at damaging someone’s rep-utation by making accusations andspreading rumors The politician’s op-ponents are engaging in a smear campaign
against him Jack started a smear cam-paign against Tom so that Tom wouldn’tget the manager’s job.
smell a ratto suspect that something iswrong; to sense that someone has causedsomething wrong (Slang.) I don’t thinkthis was an accident I smell a rat Bob hadsomething to do with this The minuteI came in, I smelled a rat Sure enough, Ihad been robbed.
smell to high heavenGo to stink to highheaven.
smile on someone or somethingto be favorableto someone or something Fate smiledon me and I got the job Lady lucksmiled on our venture and we made aprofit.
smoke and mirrorsdeception and confu-sion (Said of statements or more com-plicated rhetoric used to mislead peoplerather than inform Refers to the way amagician uses optical illusion to createbelievability while performing a trick.)
Most people know that the politician wasjust using smoke and mirrors to makethings look better than they really were
Her report was little more than smoke andmirrors No one will believe any of it.
smoke someone or something out to forcesomeone or something out (of some-thing), perhaps with smoke (In cowboyor gangster talk this refers to the smokefrom gunfire.) There was a mouse inthe attic, but I smoked it out TThe sher-iff and the deputies smoked out the bankrobbers.
smooth as glass Go to (as) smooth asglass.
smooth as silkGo to (as) smooth as silk.
smooth something outGo to smooth some-thingover.
smooth something overand smooth
some-thingoutto reduce the intensity of an ar-gument or a misunderstanding; to try tomake people feel better about somethingthat has happened (Also literal.) Maryand John had a terrible argument, andthey are both trying to smooth it over
Let’s get everyone together and try to
Trang 10smooth things out We can’t keep on argu-ing with one another TWe can smoothover the whole affair.
a snake in the grassa low and deceitfulperson Sally said that Bob couldn’t betrusted because he was a snake in the grass.
“You snake in the grass!” cried Sally.“You cheated me.”
snap at someoneto speak sharply or angrilyto someone Don’t snap at me Whatdid I do? Why did you snap at me?What did I do?
snap out of somethingto become suddenlyfreed from a state (Informal The statecan be a depression, an illness, uncon-sciousness, etc.) I was very depressed fora week, but this morning I snapped out ofit It isn’t often that a cold gets me down.Usually I can snap out of it quickly.
snap something up 1 to grab and buy some-thing I always snap bargains up when-ever I go shopping TI went to the store,and they had soup on sale, so I snapped upplenty.2 to make something go faster
You’re playing this music too slowly Snapit up! TThis performance is getting slowand dull Let’s snap up the whole thing!
sniff someone or something outto locate some-one or something (Also literal.) TI’ll seeif I can sniff out the correct stylus for yourstereo Billy was lost, but by lookingaround, we were able to sniff him out.
snug as a bug in a rugGo to (as) snugas a bug in a rug.
so-and-soa despised person (Informal.This expression is used in place of othervery insulting terms Often modified, asin the example below.) You dirty so-and-so! I can’t stand you! Don’t you callme a so-and-so, you creep!
So be it.This is the way it will be If youinsist on running off and marrying her, sobe it Only don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Mary has decided that this is what shewants So be it.
so clean you could eat off the floor[ofa room or a house] very clean Herkitchen is so clean you could eat off the
f loor! It’s so clean here you could eat offthe f loor I prefer a little mess, myself.
so far as anyone knowsGo to (as) far asanyone knows.
so far as possibleGo to as far as possible.
so far as someone or something is concerned
Go to (as) far as someone or something isconcerned.
so far as something is concernedGo to (as)far as somethingis concerned.
So far, so good.All is going well so far
We are half finished with our project Sofar, so good The operation is proceed-ing quite nicely—so far, so good.
So it goes.That is the kind of thing thathappens.; That is life Too bad aboutJohn and his problems So it goes I justlost a twenty-dollar bill, and I can’t findit anywhere So it goes.
so longgood-bye (Informal.) So long,see you later As John got out of the car,he said, “Thanks for the ride So long.”
so long asGo to as long as.
so mad I could screamvery mad I amjust so mad I could scream! Why is he sucha jerk? She makes me so made I couldscream.
so much for someone or somethingthat is thelast of someone or something; there is noneed to consider someone or somethinganymore It just started raining Somuch for our picnic this afternoon Somuch for John He just called in sick andcan’t come to work today.
so much the bettereven better; all to thebetter (Informal.) Please come to thepicnic If you can bring a salad, so muchthe better The f lowers look lovely on theshelf It would be so much the better if youput them on the table.
so quiet you could hear a pin dropGoto so still you could hear a pin drop.
so-sonot good and not bad; mediocre (In-formal.) I didn’t have a bad day It wasjust so-so The players put on a so-soperformance.
Trang 11so soon early; before the regular time;ahead of schedule I got there early be-cause my bus arrived so soon Becausethe meeting ended so soon, I had some ex-tra time.
so still you could hear a pin dropand
so quiet you could hear a pin drop
very quiet (Also with can.) When Icame into the room, it was so still youcould hear a pin drop Then everyoneshouted, “Happy birthday!” Please bequiet Be so quiet you can hear a pin drop.
so to speakas one might say; said a cer-tain way, even though the words are notexactly accurate John helps me with mytaxes He’s my accountant, so to speak
I just love my little poodle She’s my baby,so to speak.
soaked to the skinwith one’s clothing wetclear through to the skin I was caughtin the rain and got soaked to the skin
Oh, come in and dry off! You must besoaked to the skin.
sober as a judgeGo to (as) sober as ajudge.
sock something awayto store something ina safe place (Informal.) While I workedin the city, I was able to sock $100 awayevery month TAt the present time, I can’tsock away that much.
soft as a baby’s bottomGo to (as) soft asa baby’s bottom.
soft as downGo to (as) soft as down.
soft as silkGo to (as) soft as silk.
soft as velvetGo to (as) soft as velvet.
soil one’s diaper(s)[for a baby] to excretewaste into its diaper The baby soiledhis diapers I detect that someone hassoiled his diaper.
soil one’s handsGo to get one’shands dirty.
sold out[of a product] completely soldwith no more items remaining; [of astore] having no more of a particularproduct The tickets were sold out so wecouldn’t go to the concert I wanted newshoes like yours, but they were sold out.
solid as a rockGo to (as) solid as a rock.
(some) new bloodnew personnel; newmembers brought into a group to reviveit This company needs some new bloodon its board to bring in new ideas We’retrying to get some new blood in the club.Our membership is falling Our clubneeds new blood It has become boring
The firm’s management has at last got alittle new blood Things should improvenow.
someone or somethingchecks outsomeone orsomething is verified or authenticated.(Informal.) I spent all afternoon work-ing with my checkbook, trywork-ing to get thefigures to check out The police would-n’t believe that I am who I say I am untilthey made a few telephone calls to see if mystory checked out.
someoneof notea person who is famous
We invited a speaker of note to lecture atthe next meeting The baseball playerof note was inducted into the Hall ofFame.
someone’s ace in the hole something orsomeone held (secretly) in reserve; any-thing that can help in an emergency.(Slang Refers to an ace dealt facedown inpoker.) The hostages served as the ter-rorists’ ace in the hole for getting what theywanted The twenty-dollar bill in myshoe is my ace in the hole.
someone’sbread and buttersomeone’s in-come; someone’s livelihood—the sourceof one’s food (Work or a job leads to apaycheck that will buy bread and butter.)I can’t miss another day of work That’smy bread and butter I like to go to busi-ness conferences That’s good because that’smy bread and butter.
someone’sgoose is cookedone is finished;one has been found out and is in trou-ble It’s over His goose is cooked! IfI get caught, my goose is cooked.
someone’slast will and testamenta will;the last edition of someone’s will Thelawyer read Uncle Charles’s last will andtestament to a group of expectant relatives.
Fred dictated his last will and testamenton his deathbed.
Trang 12someone’smission in lifeone’s purpose forliving; the reason for which one lives onthe earth Bob’s mission in life is tomake money My mission in life is tohelp people live in peace.
someone’s pet hatesomething that is dis-liked intensely by someone and is a con-stant or repeated annoyance My pethate is being put on hold on the telephone.
Another pet hate of mine is having tostand in line.
someone’spet peeveone’s “favorite” or mostoften encountered annoyance My petpeeve is someone who always comes intothe theater after the show has started
Drivers who don’t signal are John’s petpeeve.
someone’splace of businessa place wherebusiness is done; a factory or office
Our place of business opens at noon eachday You will have to come to our placeof business to make a purchase.
someone’sswan songthe last work or per-formance of a playwright, musician, ac-tor, etc., before death or retirement
His portrayal of Lear was the actor’s swansong We didn’t know that her perfor-mance last night was the singer’s swansong.
someone’strain of thoughtsomeone’s pat-tern of thinking; someone’s sequence ofideas; what one was just thinking about.(See also lose one’s train of thought.)
My train of thought is probably not as clearas it should be I cannot seem to followyour train of thought on this matter Willyou explain it a little more carefully,please?
someonewrote the book on somethingto bevery authoritative about something; toknow enough about something to writethe definitive book on it (Also literal Al-ways in past tense.) Ted wrote the bookon unemployment He’s been looking forwork in three states for two years Do Iknow about misery? I wrote the book onmisery!
something about someone or something
something strange, special, or curiousabout someone or something There is
something about Jane I just can’t figureher out I love Mexican food There’s justsomething about it.
something else something wonderful;something extra special (Also literal In-formal.) Did you see her new car? That’sreally something else! John hit a ball yes-terday that went out of the stadium andkept on going He’s something else!
something else (again) something en-tirely different (Informal.) Borrowingis one thing, but stealing is something else.
Skin diving is easy and fun, but scubadiving is something else again.
something of the sortsomething of thekind just mentioned This is a sprucetree, or something of the sort Jane hasa cold or something of the sort.
something or othersomething; one thingor another (Informal.) I can’t remem-ber what Ann said—something or other
A messenger came by and dropped offsomething or other at the front desk.
something to that effectand words tothat effectsomething like what was justsaid (Informal.) She said she wouldn’tbe available until after three, or somethingto that effect I was told to keep out ofthe house—or something to that effect.
something’s upsomething is going to hap-pen; something is going on (Slang.)
Everybody looks very nervous I thinksomething’s up From the looks of all theactivity around here, I think something’sup.
(somewhere) in the neighborhood of an
amountapproximately a particular mea-surement I take somewhere in theneighborhood of ten pills a day for my var-ious ailments My rent is in the neigh-borhood of $700 per month.
somewhere to hang (up) one’s hatand a
place to hang one’s hat; a place to call
one’s owna place to live; a place to callone’s home What I need is somewhereto hang up my hat I just can’t stand all thistraveling A home is a lot more than aplace to hang your hat.
Trang 13son of a bitch 1 a very horrible person.(Informal Use with caution Usually in-tended as a strong insult Never used ca-sually.) Bill called Bob a son of a bitch,and Bob punched Bill in the face Thisguy’s a son of a bitch He treats everybodyrotten.2 a useless annoyance; somethingworthless This car is a son of a bitch.It won’t ever start when it’s cold Thisbumpy old road needs paving It’s a realson of a bitch.3 a difficult task (Infor-mal.) This job is a son of a bitch Ican’t do this kind of thing It’s too hard—a real son of a bitch.
son of a gun 1 a horrible person (Infor-mal A euphemism for son of a bitch.Usewith caution.) When is that plumbergoing to show up and fix this leak? The stu-pid son of a gun! Bob is a rotten son ofa gun if he thinks he can get away withthat. 2 old (male) friend (Informal Afriendly—male to male—way of refer-ring to a friend Use with caution.)
Why Bill, you old son of a gun, I haven’tseen you in three or four years Whenis that son of a gun John going to come visitus? He’s neglecting his friends.
son of a sea biscuita person, usually amale (Sometimes a substitute for son ofa bitch.) Why, good to see you, you oldson of a sea biscuit You son of a sea bis-cuit! You make me so mad I could slug you.
soon as possible Go to (as) soon aspossible.
sooner or latereventually; in the shortterm or in the long term He’ll have topay the bill sooner or later She’ll getwhat she deserves sooner or later.
sorryGo to (I’m) sorry.
sort of somethingand kind of somethingal-most something; somewhat; somehow.(Informal.) Isn’t it sort of cold out?
That was kind of a stupid thing to do,wasn’t it?
sort something outto clear up confusion; tostraighten out something disorderly.(Also literal.) TNow that things are set-tled down, I can sort out my life Thisplace is a mess Let’s sort things out beforewe do anything else.
sound as a dollarGo to (as) sound as adollar.
sound as ifand sound liketo seem, fromwhat has been said, as if something were
so (Sound like is colloquial.) It soundsas if you had a good vacation Yousound like you are angry.
sound likeGo to sound as if.
sound like a broken recordto say thesame thing over and over again (From anearlier age when a crack in a 78 rpmrecord would cause the needle (or stylus)to stay in the same groove and play it overand over.) He’s always complainingabout the way she treats him He soundslike a broken record! I hate to sound likea broken record, but we just don’t haveenough people on the payroll to workefficiently.
sound like something to seem like some-thing That sounds like a good idea
Your explanation sounds like an excuse!
sound off (about something)to speak loudlyand freely about something, especiallywhen complaining (Informal.) Thepeople at the bus stop were sounding offabout the poor transportation services
Bob was sounding off about the govern-ment’s economic policies Sam soundsoff every chance he gets.
sound someone outto try to find out whatsomeone thinks (about something) Idon’t know what Jane thinks about yoursuggestion, but I’ll sound her out TPleasesound out everyone in your department.
soup something upto make something (es-pecially a car) more powerful (Slang.)
I wish someone would soup my car up It’llhardly run TBill spent all summer soup-ing up that old car he bought.
sour as vinegarGo to (as) sour as vinegar.
sow one’s wild oatsto do wild and foolishthings in one’s youth (Often assumed tohave some sort of sexual meaning.)
Dale was out sowing his wild oats lastnight, and he’s in jail this morning Mrs.Smith told Mr Smith that he was too oldto be sowing his wild oats.
Trang 14spaced-outdopey; giddy (Slang.) I don’tsee how Sally can accomplish anything.She’s so spaced-out! She’s not reallyspaced-out She acts that way on purpose.
spare someone somethingto exempt someonefrom having to listen to or experiencesomething I’ll spare you the details andget to the point Please, spare me thestory and tell me what you want.
speak for itself and speak for them-selves[for something] not to need ex-plaining; [for things] to have an obviousmeaning The evidence speaks for itself.
The facts speak for themselves Tom isguilty Your results speak for themselves.You need to work harder.
speak for themselves Go to speak foritself.
speak highly of someone or somethingto saygood things about someone or some-thing (Note the variation in the exam-ples See also think a lot ofsomeone or some-thing.) Ann speaks quite highly of Jane’swork Everyone speaks very highly ofJane.
speak ill of someoneto say something badabout someone I refuse to speak ill ofany of my friends Max speaks ill of noone and refuses to repeat gossip.
speak off the cuffto speak in public with-out preparation I’m not too good atspeaking off the cuff I need to preparea speech for Friday, although I speak offthe cuff quite well.
speak of the devil said when someonewhose name has just been mentioned ap-pears or is heard from Well, speak ofthe devil! Hello, Tom We were just talk-ing about you I had just mentionedSally when—speak of the devil—shewalked in the door.
speak one’s mindto say frankly what onethinks (about something) (See alsospeak out (on something).) Please let mespeak my mind, and then you can dowhatever you wish You can always de-pend on John to speak his mind He’ll letyou know what he really thinks.
speak out of turnto say something unwiseor imprudent; to say the right thing at thewrong time Excuse me if I’m speakingout of turn, but what you are proposing isquite wrong Bob was quite honest, evenif he was speaking out of turn.
speak out (on something)to say somethingfrankly and directly; to speak one’smind.(See also speak up.) This law is wrong,and I intend to speak out on it until it isrepealed You must speak out Peopleneed to know what you think.
speak the same language[for people] tohave similar ideas, tastes, etc (Also lit-eral.) Jane and Jack get along very well.They really speak the same language aboutalmost everything Bob and his fatherdidn’t speak the same language when itcomes to politics.
speak up 1 to speak more loudly Theycan’t hear you in the back of the room.Please speak up What? Speak up,please I’m hard of hearing.2 to speakout (on something) If you think that thisis wrong, you must speak up and say so.
I’m too shy to speak up.
speak up for someone or somethingto speakin favor of someone or something; tospeak in someone’s defense If anybodysays bad things about me, I hope you speakup for me I want to speak up for therights of students.
speak with a forked tongueto tell lies; totry to deceive someone Jean’s mothersounds very charming, but she speaks witha forked tongue People tend to believeFred because he seems plausible, but weknow he speaks with a forked tongue.
spell something out 1 to spell something (in
letters) (Also without out.) I can’t un-derstand your name Can you spell it out?
TPlease spell out all the strange words soI can write them down correctly.2 to giveall the details of something I want youto understand this completely, so I’m go-ing to spell it out very carefully TThe in-struction book for my computer spells outeverything very carefully.
spell troubleto signify future trouble; tomean trouble (Informal.) This letter
Trang 15that came today spells trouble The skylooks angry and dark That spells trouble.
spick-and-spanvery clean (Informal.)
I have to clean up the house and get itspick-and-span for the party Friday night.
I love to have everything around mespick-and-span.
spill the beansGo to let the cat out of thebag.
spin a yarnto tell a tale Grandpa spunan unbelievable yarn for us My uncle isalways spinning yarns about his childhood.
spin one’s wheelsto be in motion, but getnowhere (Slang.) This is a terrible job.I’m just spinning my wheels and not get-ting anywhere Get organized and try toaccomplish something Stop spinning yourwheels!
spin something offto create something as aby-product of something else Whenthe company reorganized, it spun its bank-ing division off TBy spinning off part ofits assets, a company gets needed capital.
spit (something) upto throw something up;to vomit something (A little gentler thanthrow (something) up.) I guess that thefood didn’t agree with the dog, because hespit it up TThe baby has been spittingup all morning TBob spit up his wholedinner.
split hairsto quibble; to try to make pettydistinctions They don’t have any seri-ous differences They are just splittinghairs Don’t waste time splitting hairs.Accept it the way it is.
split one’s sides (with laughter)to laughso hard that one’s sides almost split (Al-ways an exaggeration.) The members ofthe audience almost split their sides withlaughter When I heard what happenedto Patricia, I almost split my sides.
split people upto separate two or morepeople (from one another) If you twodon’t stop chattering, I’ll have to split youup The group of people grew too large,so we had to split them up TI will haveto split up that twosome in the corner.
split something fifty-fiftyGo to divide some-thingfifty-fifty.
split the differenceto divide the differ-ence evenly (with someone else) Youwant to sell for $120, and I want to buy for$100 Let’s split the difference and close thedeal at $110 I don’t want to split thedifference I want $120.
split up[for people] to separate or leaveone another; [for a couple] to divorce orspearate I heard that Mr and Mrs.Brown have split up Our little club hadto split up because everyone was too busy.
spoken fortaken; reserved (for someone).I’m sorry, but this one is already spo-ken for Pardon me Can I sit here, or isthis seat spoken for?
spook someone or somethingto startle or dis-orient someone or something (Folksy.)A snake spooked my horse, and I nearlyfell off Your warning spooked me, andI was upset for the rest of the day.
spoon-feed someoneto treat someone withtoo much care or help; to teach someonewith methods that are too easy and donot stimulate the learner to independentthinking (Also literal.) The teacherspoon-feeds the students by dictating noteson the novel instead of getting the childrento read the books You mustn’t spoon-feed the new recruits by telling them whatto do all the time They must use theirinitiative.
a sporting chance a reasonably goodchance (See also fighting chance.) Ifyou hurry, you have a sporting chance ofcatching the bus The small companyhas only a sporting chance of getting theexport order.
spout off (about someone or something)totalk too much about someone or some-thing (Informal.) Why do you alwayshave to spout off about things that don’tconcern you? Everyone in our officespouts off about the boss There is noneed to spout off like that Calm down andthink about what you’re saying.
spread it on thickGo to lay it on thick.
spread like wildfireto spread rapidly andwithout control The epidemic isspreading like wildfire Everyone is getting
Trang 16sick John told a joke that was so funnyit spread like wildfire.
spread oneself too thin to do so manythings that you can do none of them well.It’s a good idea to get involved in a lotof activities, but don’t spread yourself toothin I’m too busy these days I’m afraidI’ve spread myself too thin.
spring for somethingto treat (someone) tosomething (Slang.) John and I wentout last night, and he sprang for dinner.
At the park Bill usually springs for icecream.
spring something on someone to surprisesomeone with something (Informal.)
I’m glad you told me now, rather thanspringing it on me at the last minute Isprang the news on my parents last night.They were not glad to hear it.
spruce someone or something up to makesomeone or something clean and orderly.I’ll be ready to go as soon as I spruce my-self up a bit T I have to spruce up thehouse for the party.
square accounts (with someone) 1 to set-tle one’s financial accounts with some-one I have to square accounts with thebank this week, or it’ll take back my car
I called the bank and said I needed to comein and square accounts. 2 to get evenwith someone; to straighten out a mis-understanding with someone (Infor-mal.) I’m going to square accounts withTom He insulted me in public, and heowes me an apology Tom, you and I aregoing to have to square accounts.
square deala fair and honest transaction;fair treatment (Informal.) All theworkers want is a square deal, but theirboss underpays them You always get asquare deal with that travel company.
square meala nourishing, filling meal
All you’ve eaten today is junk food Youshould sit down to a square meal Thepoor old man hadn’t had a square meal inweeks.
square off (for something)to get ready foran argument or a fight John was an-gry and appeared to be squaring off for a
fight When those two square off, every-one gets out of the way.
asquare peg in a round holea misfit
John can’t seem to get along with the peo-ple he works with He’s just a square peg ina round hole I’m not a square peg in around hole It’s just that no one under-stands me.
square someone or something away to getsomeone or something arranged or prop-erly taken care of See if you can squareBob away in his new office T Pleasesquare away the problems we discussedearlier.
square up to someone or somethingto facesomeone or something bravely; to tacklesomeone or something You’ll have tosquare up to the bully or he’ll make yourlife miserable It’s time to square up toyour financial problems You can’t just ig-nore them.
square up with someoneto pay someonewhat one owes; to pay one’s share ofsomething to someone (Informal.) I’llsquare up with you later if you pay thewhole bill now Bob said he wouldsquare up with Tom for his share of thegas.
squared awayarranged or properly takencare of Is Ann squared away yet? Iwill talk to you when I am squared away.
squeak by (someone or something) to justbarely get by someone or something (In-formal.) The guard was almost asleep,so I squeaked by him I wasn’t very wellprepared for the test, and I just squeakedby.
squirrel something away to hide or storesomething (Folksy.) Billy has beensquirreling candy away in his top drawer.
TI’ve been squirreling away a little moneyeach week for years.
stab someone in the backto betray some-one (Also literal Informal.) I thoughtwe were friends! Why did you stab me inthe back? You don’t expect a personwhom you trust to stab you in the back.
stack something upto make a stack of things.
(Also without the up.) Where should I
Trang 17stack them up? T Please stack up theseboxes.
stack the cards (against someone or
some-thing)Go to stack the deck (against some-one or something).
stack the deck (against someone or
some-thing) and stack the cards (against
someone or something) to arrange thingsagainst someone or something (Slang.Originally from card playing.) I can’tget ahead at my office Someone hasstacked the cards against me Do youreally think that someone has stacked thedeck? Isn’t it just fate?
stake a claim (to something)to lay or makea claim for something (Informal.) Iwant to stake a claim to that last piece ofpie You don’t need to stake a claim Justask politely.
stall someone or something offto put off or de-lay someone or something The sheriffis at the door I’ll stall him off while youget out the back door TYou can stall offthe sheriff, but you can’t stall off justice.
stamp someone or something out 1 [with
someone] to get rid of or kill someone.
(Slang.) You just can’t stamp somebodyout on your own! TThe victim wanted tostamp out the robbers without a trial. 2.
[with something] to extinguish
some-thing Quick, stamp that fire out beforeit spreads TTom stamped out the sparksbefore they started a fire.3 [with some-thing] to eliminate something Thedoctors hope they can stamp cancer out T
Many people think that they can stamp outevil.
stand a chanceto have a chance Do youthink I stand a chance of winning firstplace? Everyone stands a chance ofcatching the disease.
stand and deliverto give up somethingto someone who demands it (Originallyused by highway robbers asking for pas-sengers’ valuables Now used figura-tively.) And when the tax agent says“Stand and deliver” you have to be pre-pared to pay what is demanded Therobber stopped the coach and demanded ofLady Ellen, “Stand and deliver!”
stand behind someone or something and
stand (in) back of someone or somethingtoendorse or guarantee something or theactions of a person (Also literal.) Ourcompany stands behind this product 100percent I stand behind Bill and every-thing he does.
stand byto wait and remain ready (Gen-erally heard in communication, such asbroadcasting, telephones, etc.) Yourtransatlantic telephone call is almost ready.Please stand by Is everyone ready for thetelecast? Only ten seconds—stand by.
stand by someoneto support someone; tocontinue supporting someone even whenthings are bad (Also literal Comparethis with stick by someone or something.)
Don’t worry I’ll stand by you no matterwhat I feel as though I have to standby my brother even if he goes to jail.
stand corrected to admit that one hasbeen wrong I realize that I accused himwrongly I stand corrected We appreci-ate now that our conclusions were wrong.We stand corrected.
stand for something 1 to endure something.The teacher won’t stand for any whis-pering in class We just can’t stand forthat kind of behavior.2 to signify some-thing In a traffic signal, the red lightstands for “stop.” The abbreviation Dr.stands for “doctor.”3 to endorse or sup-port an ideal The mayor claims tostand for honesty in government and jobsfor everyone Every candidate for pub-lic office stands for all the good things inlife.
stand in awe (of someone or something)to beoverwhelmed with respect for someoneor something Many people stand inawe of the president Bob says he standsin awe of a big juicy steak I think he’s ex-aggerating When it comes to food, youcan say that it’s delicious, but one hardlystands in awe.
stand (in) back of someone or somethingGoto stand behind someone or something.
stand in (for someone) to substitute forsomeone; to serve in someone’s place
The famous opera singer was ill, and an
Trang 18experienced singer had to stand in for her.
The new singer was grateful for the op-portunity to stand in.
stand in someone’s wayto be a barrier tosomeone’s desires or intentions (Also lit-eral.) I know you want a divorce so youcan marry Ann Well, I won’t stand in yourway You can have the divorce I knowyou want to leave home, and I don’t wantto stand in your way You’re free to go.
stand on ceremonyto hold rigidly to pro-tocol or formal manners (Often in thenegative.) Please help yourself to more.Don’t stand on ceremony We are veryinformal around here Hardly anyonestands on ceremony.
stand one’s groundand hold one’s ground
to stand up for one’s rights; to resist anattack The lawyer tried to confuse mewhen I was giving testimony, but I man-aged to stand my ground Some peoplewere trying to crowd us off the beach, butwe held our ground.
stand on one’s own two feetto be inde-pendent and self-sufficient (Informal.Compare this with get back on one’sfeet.) I’ll be glad when I have a good joband can stand on my own two feet
When Jane gets out of debt, she’ll be ableto stand on her own two feet again.
stand outto be uniquely visible or con-spicuous This computer stands out asone of the best available Because Johnis so tall, he really stands out in a crowd.
stand over someone to monitor or watchover someone, possibly while actuallystanding near the person You don’thave to stand over me I can do it by my-self I know from previous experiencethat if I don’t stand over you, you’ll neverfinish.
stand patto remain as is; to preserve thestatus quo (Informal.) We can’t juststand pat! We have to keep makingprogress! This company isn’t increasingsales It’s just standing pat.
stand someone in good steadto be usefulor beneficial to someone This is a fineovercoat I’m sure it’ll stand you in goodstead for many years I did the mayor a
favor that I’m sure will stand me in goodstead.
stand someone to a treatto pay for foodor drink for someone as a special favor.We went to the zoo, and my father stoodus all to a treat We had ice cream and softdrinks We went to a nice restaurant andhad a fine meal It was even better whenMr Williams told us he’d stand us to atreat, and he picked up the bill.
stand someone upto fail to meet someonefor a date or an appointment John andJane were supposed to go out last night, butshe stood him up TIf you stand up peo-ple very often, you’ll find that you have nofriends at all.
stand still for somethingand hold still for
somethingto tolerate or endure something.(Often in the negative.) I won’t standstill for that kind of behavior! She won’thold still for that kind of talk.
stand to reasonto seem reasonable Itstands to reason that it’ll be colder in Jan-uary than it is in November It stands toreason that Bill left in a hurry, althoughno one saw him go.
stand up and be countedto state one’ssupport (for someone or something); tocome out for someone or something If youbelieve in more government help for farm-ers, write your representative—stand upand be counted I’m generally in favorof what you propose, but not enough tostand up and be counted.
a standing joke a subject that regularlyand over a period of time causes amuse-ment whenever it is amuse-mentioned UncleJim’s driving was a standing joke He usedto drive incredibly slowly Theirmother’s inability to make a decision wasa standing joke in the Smith family alltheir lives.
stare someone in the faceGo to look some-onein the face.
stark raving mad totally insane; com-pletely crazy; out of control (Often anexaggeration.) When she heard aboutwhat happened at the office, she went starkraving mad You must be stark raving
Trang 19mad if you think I would trust you withmy car!
start from scratchto start from the be-ginning; to start from nothing (Infor-mal Compare this with make somethingfrom scratch.) Whenever I bake a cake,I start from scratch I never use a cake mixin a box I built every bit of my ownhouse I started from scratch and dideverything with my own hands.
start off on the wrong foot to begin[something] by doing something wrong.(Also literal See also be off on the wrongfoot; get off on the wrong foot.) I don’twant to start off on the wrong foot by say-ing somethsay-ing stupid What should I say?
Poor Donna started off on the wrongfoot when she arrived forty minutes late.
start (off ) with a clean slateand start(over) with a clean slate to start outagain afresh; to ignore the past and startover again (Refers to making marks ona [clean] slate with chalk.) I plowed un-der all last year’s f lowers so I could startwith a clean slate next spring If I startoff with a clean slate, then I’ll know ex-actly what each plant is When Bob gotout of jail, he started over with a cleanslate.
start (over) with a clean slateGo to start(off) with a clean slate.
start someone in (as something)and start
someoneout (as something)to start some-one on a job as a certain kind of worker.I got a job in a restaurant today Theystarted me in as a dishwasher I nowwork for the telephone company Theystarted me out as a local operator.
start someone out (as something)Go to startsomeonein (as something).
start somethingto start a fight or an
argu-ment (Also literal Something is anythingor nothing in the negative.) Hey, you!Better be careful unless you want to startsomething I don’t want to start any-thing I’m just leaving.
start something upto start something, suchas a car or some procedure (Also
with-out up.) TIt was cold, but I managed tostart up the car without any difficulty
We can’t start the project up until we havemore money.
start the ball rollingGo to get the ballrolling.
stay after someoneGo to keep after someone.
stay in touch (with someone)Go to keepin touch (with someone).
stay putnot to move; to stay where one is.(Informal.) We’ve decided to stay putand not to move to Florida If the chil-dren just stay put, their parents will comefor them soon.
steady as a rockGo to (as) steady as arock.
steal a baseto sneak from one base to an-other in baseball The runner stole sec-ond base, but he nearly got put out on theway Tom runs so slowly that he nevertries to steal a base.
steal a march (on someone)to get somesort of an advantage over someone with-out being noticed I got the contract be-cause I was able to steal a march on mycompetitor You have to be clever andfast—not dishonest—to steal a march.
steal someone’s thunderto lessen someone’sforce or authority What do you meanby coming in here and stealing my thun-der? I’m in charge here! Someone stolemy thunder by leaking my announcementto the press.
steal the showGo to steal the spotlight.
steal the spotlightand steal the show
to give the best performance in a show,play, or some other event; to get attentionfor oneself The lead in the play wasvery good, but the butler stole the show
Ann always tries to steal the spotlight whenshe and I make a presentation.
steamed upangry (Informal.) WhatBob said really got me steamed up Whydo you get so steamed up about nothing?
steaming (mad) very angry; very mad;very upset The steaming coach yelledat the clumsy players The principal wassteaming mad when he found that his of-fice had been vandalized.
Trang 20steer clear (of someone or something)to avoidsomeone or something John is mad atme, so I’ve been steering clear of him
Steer clear of that book It has many errorsin it Good advice I’ll steer clear.
step-by-steplittle by little, one step at atime (Refers both to walking and fol-lowing instructions.) Just follow the in-structions step-by-step, and everythingwill be fine The old man slowly movedacross the lawn step-by-step.
step down (from something)to resign a jobor a responsibility (Also literal.) Themayor stepped down from office last week.
It’s unusual for a mayor to step down.
step into someone’s shoesto take over a jobor some role from someone I was pre-pared to step into the boss’s shoes, so therewas no disruption when he left for anotherjob There was no one who could stepinto Alice’s shoes when she left, so every-thing came to a stop.
step in(to the breach) to move into aspace or vacancy; to assume the job ofsomeone who has left it When Ann re-signed as president, I stepped into thebreach A number of people asked meto step in and take her place.
step on itGo to step on the gas.
step on someone’s toesto interfere with oroffend someone (Also literal.) Whenyou’re in public office, you have to avoidstepping on anyone’s toes Ann steppedon someone’s toes during the last campaignand lost the election.
step on the gasand step on ithurry up.(Informal.) I’m in a hurry, driver Stepon it! I can’t step on the gas, mister.There’s too much traffic.
step out of lineto misbehave; to do some-thing offensive (Also literal.) I’m ter-ribly sorry I hope I didn’t step out of line.
John is a lot of fun to go out with, buthe has a tendency to step out of line.
step (right) upto move forward, towardsomeone Step up and get your mailwhen I call your name Come on, every-body Step right up and help yourself tosupper.
step something upto cause something to gofaster T The factory was not makingenough cars, so they stepped up produc-tion The music was not fast enough, sothe conductor told everyone to step it up.
stew in one’s own juiceto be left alone tosuffer one’s anger or disappointment (In-formal.) John has such a terrible tem-per When he got mad at us, we just let himgo away and stew in his own juice Af-ter John stewed in his own juice for a while,he decided to come back and apologize tous.
stick around[for a person] to remain ina place (Informal.) The kids stuckaround for a time after the party was over.
Oh, Ann Please stick around for awhile I want to talk to you later.
stick by someone or somethingand stick with
someone or somethingto support someone orsomething; to continue supporting some-one or something when things are bad.(Informal Compare this with stand bysomeone.) Don’t worry I’ll stick by youno matter what I feel as if I have to stickby my brother even if he goes to jail I’llstick by my ideas whether you like themor not.
Stick ’em up!Go to Hands up!
stick-in-the-mudsomeone who is stub-bornly old-fashioned Come on to theparty with us and have some fun Don’tbe an old stick-in-the-mud! Tom is nostick-in-the-mud He’s really up-to-date.
stick one’s foot in one’s mouthGo to putone’sfoot in one’s mouth.
stick one’s neck out (for someone or
some-thing)to take a risk (Informal.) Whyshould I stick my neck out to do somethingfor her? What’s she ever done for me? Hemade a risky investment He stuck his neckout for the deal because he thought hecould make some money.
stick one’s nose in(to something)Go to pokeone’snose in(to something).
stick out like a sore thumbto be veryprominent or unsightly; to be obviousand visible (Informal.) Bob is so tallthat he sticks out like a sore thumb in a
Trang 21crowd The house next door needs paint-ing It sticks out like a sore thumb.
stick someone or something up 1 [with some-thing] to affix or attach something onto
a wall, post, etc This notice ought to beon the bulletin board Please stick it up.
TI’m going to stick up this poster near theentrance. 2 to rob someone or some-thing One robber stuck the cashier upfirst, but someone sounded the alarm be-fore any money was taken TThe robberscame in and tried to stick up the bank, butthey got caught first.
stick someone with someone or something toburden someone with someone or some-thing (Informal.) The dishonest mer-chant stuck me with a faulty television set.
John stuck me with his talkative uncleand went off with his friends.
stick something outto endure something.(Also literal.) The play was terribly bor-ing, but I managed to stick it out Col-lege was very difficult for Bill, but he de-cided to stick it out.
stick together to remain together as agroup (Also literal Informal.) Comeon, you guys Let’s stick together Other-wise somebody will get lost Our groupof friends has managed to stick together foralmost twenty years.
stick to one’s gunsto remain firm in one’sconvictions; to stand up for one’s rights.(Informal Compare this with stand one’sground.) I’ll stick to my guns on thismatter I’m sure I’m right Bob can bepersuaded to do it our way He probablywon’t stick to his guns on this point.
stick to one’s ribs[for food] to last long andfortify one well; [for food] to sustain oneeven in the coldest weather (Refers to theinside of one’s ribs.) This oatmealought to stick to your ribs You need some-thing hearty on a cold day like this Idon’t want soup! I want something thatwill stick to my ribs.
stick up for someone or somethingto supportsomeone or something; to speak in favorof someone or something Everyonewas making unpleasant remarks about
John, but I stuck up for him Our teamwas losing, but I stuck up for it anyway.
stick with someone or somethingGo to stick bysomeone or something.
sticks and stoneselements of harm [di-rected at someone] (Part of a rhyme,“Sticks and stones may break my bones,but words will never hurt me.”) I havehad enough of your sticks and stones Ihave enough trouble without your addingto it After the opposing candidate hadused sticks and stones for a month, sud-denly there were kind words heard.
stiff as a pokerGo to (as) stiff as a poker.
still as deathGo to (as) still as death.
stink to high heavenand smell to highheavento smell very bad What hap-pened? This place stinks to high heaven
This meat smells to high heaven Throw itaway!
stir someone or something up 1 [with some-one] to make someone angry or excited;
to make someone get active (Also lit-eral.) I need a cup of hot coffee to stirme up in the morning T Reading thenewspaper always stirs up my father. 2.
[with something] to cause trouble; to
fo-ment disagreefo-ment and difficulty T
They stirred up quite a commotion T
Who stirred up this matter?
stir up a hornet’s nestto create trouble ordifficulties (Also literal Informal.)
What a mess you have made of things.You’ve really stirred up a hornet’s nest
Bill stirred up a hornet’s nest when he dis-covered the theft.
stock up (on something)to build up a sup-ply of something Before the first snow,we always stock up on firewood Johndrinks a lot of milk, so we stock up whenwe know he’s coming.
a stone’s throw (away) (from something)
Go to within a stone’s throw (of some-thing).
stoop to doing somethingto degrade oneselfor condescend to doing something; to dosomething that is beneath one Who-ever thought that the manager of the
Trang 22partment would stoop to typing? I neverdreamed that Bill would stoop to stealing.
stop-and-gohalting repeatedly; stoppingand continuing repeatedly This projecthas been stop-and-go since we began.Problems keep appearing The trafficwas stop-and-go for miles I thought Iwould never get here!
stop at nothingto do everything possible(to accomplish something); to be un-scrupulous Bill would stop at nothingto get his way Bob is completely deter-mined to get promoted He’ll stop atnothing.
stop by (somewhere) and stop in
(some-where)to visit a place, usually briefly
I was coming home, but I decided to stopby my aunt’s on the way She was veryglad that I stopped in.
stop in (somewhere) Go to stop by (some-where).
stop, look, and listento exercise cautionat street corners and railroad crossings,by stopping, looking to the left and to theright, and listening for approaching ve-hicles or a train Sally’s mother trainedher to stop, look, and listen at every streetcorner It is a good practice to stop, look,and listen at a railroad crossing.
stop off (somewhere)to stop somewhere onthe way to some other place I stoppedoff at the store to buy milk on the wayhome We stopped off for a few minutesand chatted with my uncle.
stop over (somewhere)to break one’s jour-ney somewhere, usually overnight oreven longer (Compare this with lay over(somewhere).) On our way to New York,we stopped over in Philadelphia for thenight That’s a good place to stop over.There are some nice hotels in Philadelphia.
stop short of doing somethingnot to go as faras doing something; not to go as far assomething Fortunately Bob stoppedshort of hitting Tom The boss criticizedJane’s work, but stopped short of repri-manding her Jack was furious butstopped short of hitting Tom Janewouldn’t stop short of telling lies in orderto get a job.
Astorm is brewing 1.There is going tobe a storm Look at the clouds A stormis brewing A storm is brewing in thewest. 2.There is going to be trouble oremotional upset He looks angry Astorm is brewing.
the straight and narrowa straight andlaw-abiding route through life
(Infor-mal From straight and narrow pathway.)
You should have no trouble with the po-lice if you stick to the straight and narrow.
Roger was the kind who followed thestraight and narrow every day of his life.
straight as an arrowGo to (as) straight asan arrow.
(straight) from the horse’s mouthfroman authoritative or dependable source
I know it’s true! I heard it straight from thehorse’s mouth! This comes from thehorse’s mouth, so it has to be believed.
straight from the shoulder sincerely;frankly; holding nothing back Sally al-ways speaks straight from the shoulder Younever have to guess what she really means.
Bill gave a good presentation—straightfrom the shoulder and brief.
straighten someone or something out 1 [with
someone] to make someone understand
something (Also literal.) Jane was con-fused about the date, so I straightened herout TI took a few minutes and straight-ened out everyone. 2 [with someone] to
reform someone Most people thinkthat jail never straightens anybody out T
The judge felt that a few years at hard la-bor would straighten out the thief.3 [with
something] to make a situation less
con-fused John made a mess of the contract,so I helped him straighten it out TPleasestraighten out your checking account It’sall messed up.
straighten someone or something up 1 to putsomeone or something into an uprightposition The fence is tilted Pleasestraighten up that post when you get achance Bill, you’re slouching again.Straighten yourself up.2 to tidy up some-one or something John straightenedhimself up a little before going on stage.
Trang 23TThis room is a mess Let’s straighten upthis place, right now!
straighten up 1 to sit or stand morestraight Billy’s mother told him tostraighten up or he’d fall out of his chair.
John straightened up so he’d look taller.
2 to behave better Bill was actingbadly for a while; then he straightened up.
Sally, straighten up, or I will punish you!
stranger to something or somewheresomeonewho is new to an area or place Al-though John was no stranger to big cities,he did not enjoy visiting New York Youare a stranger to our town, and I hope youfeel welcome.
strapped (for something)very much in needof money (Informal.) I’m strapped fora few bucks Can you loan me five dollars?
Sorry, I’m strapped, too.
stretch a pointand stretch the pointtointerpret a point flexibly and with greatlatitude Would it be stretching a pointto suggest that everyone is invited to yourpicnic? To say that everyone is invitedis stretching the point.
stretch one’s legsto walk around after sit-ting down or lying down for a time
We wanted to stretch our legs during thetheater intermission After sitting in thecar all day, the travelers decided to stretchtheir legs.
stretch the pointGo to stretch a point.
stretch the truth to exaggerate; to mis-represent the truth just a little bit Shewas stretching the truth when she saideverything was ready for the party Idon’t want to stretch the truth Our townis probably the wealthiest around here.
(strictly) on the levelhonest; dependablyopen and fair How can I be sure you’reon the level? You can trust Sally She’sstrictly on the level.
(strictly) on the up-and-uphonest; fairand straight (Slang Compare this withon the level.) Do you think that themayor is on the up-and-up? Yes, themayor is strictly on the up-and-up.
strike a balance (between two or more
things)to find a satisfactory compromise
between two extremes The politicalparty must strike a balance between theright wing and the left wing Jane isoverdressed for the party and Sally is un-derdressed What a pity they didn’t strikea balance.
strike a bargainto reach an agreement ona price (for something) They arguedfor a while and finally struck a bargain.
They were unable to strike a bargain, sothey left.
strike a chord (with someone) to causesomeone to remember something; to re-mind someone or something; to be fa-miliar The woman in the portraitstruck a chord and I realized that it was mygrandmother His name strikes a chordwith me, but I don’t know why.
strike a happy mediumand hit a happymedium; find a happy medium. tofind a compromise position; to arrive ata position halfway between two unac-ceptable extremes Ann likes very spicyfood, but Bob doesn’t care for spicy food atall We are trying to find a restaurant thatstrikes a happy medium Tom is eithervery happy or very sad He can’t seem tohit a happy medium.
strike a matchto light a match Marystruck a match and lit a candle WhenSally struck a match to light a cigarette,Jane said quickly, “No smoking, please.”
strike a poseto position oneself in a cer-tain posture Bob struck a pose in frontof the mirror to see how much he hadgrown Lisa walked into the room andstruck a pose, hoping she would be noticed.
strike a sour noteand hit a sour note
to signify something unpleasant (Infor-mal.) Jane’s sad announcement struck asour note at the annual banquet Newsof the crime hit a sour note in our holidaycelebration.
strike homeGo to hit home.
strike it richto acquire wealth suddenly.(Informal.) If I could strike it rich, Iwouldn’t have to work anymore Sallyordered a dozen oysters and found a hugepearl in one of them She struck it rich!
Trang 24strike out 1 [for a baseball batter] to bedeclared “out” after three strikes (Seealso strike someone out.) Bill almostnever strikes out John struck out at leastonce in every game this season.2 to fail.(Slang.) Ann did her best, but she struckout anyway Give it another try Just be-cause you struck out once doesn’t mean youcan’t do better now.
strike out at someone or somethingto (figu-ratively or literally) hit at or attack some-one or something She was so angry shestruck out at the person she was arguingwith I was frantic I wanted to strikeout at everything and everybody.
strike someone as something[for a thought orbehavior] to affect someone a certainway John’s rude behavior struck me asodd Mary’s attitude struck me aschildish.
strike someone funny to seem funny tosomeone Sally has a great sense of hu-mor Everything she says strikes me funny.
Why are you laughing? Did somethingI said strike you funny?
strike someone out[for a baseball pitcher]to get a batter declared “out” after threestrikes I never thought he’d strike Tomout TBill struck out all our best players.
strike someone’s fancyto appeal to some-one (See also tickle someone’sfancy.) I’llhave some ice cream, please Chocolatestrikes my fancy right now Why don’tyou go to the store and buy a record al-bum that strikes your fancy?
strike the right noteto achieve the desiredeffect; to do something suitable or pleas-ing (A musical reference.) Meg struckthe right note when she wore a dark suitto the interview The politician’s speechfailed to strike the right note with thecrowd.
strike up a conversationto start a con-versation (with someone) I struck upan interesting conversation with someoneon the bus yesterday It’s easy to strikeup a conversation with someone whenyou’re traveling.
strike up a friendshipto become friends(with someone) I struck up a
friend-ship with John while we were on a businesstrip together If you’re lonely, you shouldgo out and try to strike up a friendshipwith someone you like.
strike while the iron is hotto do some-thing at the best possible time; to dosomething when the time is ripe Hewas in a good mood, so I asked for a loanof $200 I thought I’d better strike whilethe iron was hot Please go to the bankand settle this matter now! They are will-ing to be reasonable You’ve got to strikewhile the iron is hot.
string along (with someone)to accompanysomeone; to run around with someone
Sally seemed to know where she was going,so I decided to string along with her Shesaid it was okay if I strung along.
string something outto draw something out(in time); to make something last a longtime (Also literal.) The meeting waslong enough There was no need to stringit out further with all those speeches T
They tried to string out the meeting tomake things seem more important.
astroke of lucka bit of luck; a lucky hap-pening I had a stroke of luck and foundTom at home when I called He’s not usu-ally there Unless I have a stroke of luck,I’m not going to finish this report bytomorrow.
strong as a horseGo to (as) strong as ahorse.
strong as a lionGo to (as) strong as a lion.
strong as an oxGo to (as) strong as anox.
astruggle to the deatha bitter struggleeither to success or failure (Also literal.)It was a struggle to the death, but I fi-nally finished my report on time I hada terrible time getting my car started Itwas a struggle to the death, but it finallystarted.
strung out 1 extended in time; overlylong Why was that lecture so strungout? She talked and talked It was strungout because there was very little to be said.
2 doped or drugged (Slang.) Bobacted very strangely—as if he were strung
Trang 25out or something I’ve never seen Bobor any of his friends strung out.
stubborn as a muleGo to (as) stubbornas a mule.
(stuck) in a rutkept in an established wayof living that never changes David feltlike he was stuck in a rut, so he went backto school Anne was tired of being in arut, so she moved to Los Angeles.
stuck in trafficto be caught in a trafficjam I am sorry I am late I was stuckin traffic Our taxi was stuck in traffic,and I thought I would never get to the air-port on time.
stuck on someone or something 1 [with one] to be fond of or in love with
some-one John was stuck on Sally, but shedidn’t know it He always is stuck on thewrong person.2 [with something] to be
locked into an idea, cause, or purpose.Mary is really stuck on the idea of go-ing to France this sprgo-ing You’ve pro-posed a good plan, Jane, but you’re stuckon it We may have to make some changes.
stuck with someone or somethingburdenedwith someone or something; left havingto care for someone or something (In-formal.) Please don’t leave me stuckwith your aunt She talks too much Myroommate quit school and left me stuckwith the telephone bill.
stuff and nonsensenonsense (Informal.)Come on! Don’t give me all that stuffand nonsense! I don’t understand thisbook It’s all stuff and nonsense as far as Iam concerned.
stuff the ballot boxto put fraudulent bal-lots into a ballot box; to cheat in count-ing the votes in an election The elec-tion judge was caught stuffing the ballotbox in the election yesterday Electionofficials are supposed to guard againststuffing the ballot box.
stumble across someone or something and
stumble into someone or something; stum-ble (up)on someone or something to findsomeone or something, usually by acci-dent I stumbled across an interestingbook yesterday when I was shopping
Guess who I stumbled into at the library
yesterday? I stumbled on a real bargainat the bookstore last week.
stumble into someone or something 1 tobump into someone or something acci-dentally I stumbled into John, and Iapologized It was my fault I stumbledinto a post and hurt my arm. 2 Go tostumble across someone or something. 3.
[with something] to enter something or
a place by stumbling I tripped on thecurb and stumbled into the car I stum-bled into the house, exhausted and in needof a cool drink.
stumble (up)on someone or something 1 Goto stumble across someone or something.2.
to trip over someone or something
There were three of us sleeping in the smalltent Each of us would stumble on the oth-ers whenever we went out or came in Istumbled on the curb and twisted myankle.
stumbling blocksomething that preventsor obstructs progress We’d like to buythat house, but the high price is the stum-bling block Jim’s age is a stumblingblock to getting another job He’s over 60.
subject to something 1.likely to have some-thing, such as a physical disorder Thesick man was subject to dizzy spells Iam subject to frequent headaches.2.ten-tative, depending on something; vulner-able to something I have made all thenecessary plans, subject to your approval,of course My remarks are, of course,subject to your criticisms.
subscribe to somethingto have a standingorder for a magazine or something sim-ilar I usually buy my monthly maga-zines at the newsstand I don’t subscribeto them I subscribe to all the magazinesI read because it’s nice to have them de-livered by mail.
such and such someone or somethingwhose name has been forgotten or shouldnot be said (Informal.) Mary said thatsuch and such was coming to her party, butI forgot their names If you walk into astore and ask for such and such and theydon’t have it, you go to a different store.
Trang 26such as 1.of a particular kind; of the sortthat is; like Where can I get a haircutsuch as yours? I’d like to buy a vase suchas the one in your display case.2.for ex-ample Bill enjoys many kinds of fruit,such as apples, pears, and plums Maryhas many hobbies, such as swimming,bowling, and running.
such as it isin the imperfect state that onesees it; in the less-than-perfect conditionin which one finds it This is where Ilive This is my glorious home—such as itis I’ve worked for days on this report,and I’ve done the best that I can do It’s mysupreme effort—such as it is.
Such is life!That is the way things happen,even it isn’t the way I want it to be! Oh,well Everything can’t be perfect Such islife! So I failed my test Such is life! I cantake it again some time.
suck someone inand take someone into
de-ceive someone (The expression with suck
is slang.) I try to shop carefully so thatno one can take me in T I think thatsomeone sucked in both of them I don’tknow why they bought this car.
suggestive of something reminiscent ofsomething; seeming to suggest some-thing Bill’s homemade soup is sugges-tive of his mother’s The new movie wassuggestive of an old one I had seen on TV.
suit oneself to do something one’s ownway; to do something to please oneself.If he doesn’t want to do it my way, hecan suit himself Take either of the booksthat you like Suit yourself I’ll read theother one.
suit someone to a Tand fit someone to a T
to be very appropriate for someone
This kind of job suits me to a T This isSally’s kind of house It fits her to a T.
sum and substancea summary; the gist.(See also form and substance.) Can youquickly tell me the sum and substance ofyour proposal? In trying to explain thesum and substance of the essay, Thomasfailed to mention the middle name of thehero.
sum something upto summarize something.(Literally, to figure out the total.) TAt
the end of the lecture, Dr Williamssummed up the important points Hesaid when he finished, “Well, that aboutsums it up.”
Sunday-go-to-meeting clothesone’s bestclothes (Folksy See also in one’s Sundaybest.) John was all dressed up in hisSunday-go-to-meeting clothes I hate tobe wearing my Sunday-go-to-meetingclothes when everyone else is casuallydressed.
supply and demand the availability ofthings or people as compared to the needto utilize the things or people; the avail-ability of goods compared to the numberof willing customers for the goods
Sometimes you can find what you want byshopping around and other times almostno store carries the items you are lookingfor It depends entirely on supply and de-mand Sometimes customers ask forthings we do not carry in stock and othertimes we have things in abundance that noone wants to buy Whether or not we canmake money off of a product depends en-tirely on supply and demand.
supposed to do somethingexpected or in-tended to do something; obliged or al-lowed to do something You’re sup-posed to say “excuse me” when you burp.
Mom says you’re supposed to come in-side for dinner now.
sure as deathGo to (as) sure as death.
surf and turffish and beef; lobster andbeef (A type of meal incorporating bothexpensive seafood and an expensive cutof beef Refers to the sea and to the pas-ture.) Walter ordered the surf and turf,but Alice ordered only a tiny salad Nosurf and turf for me I want fish and fishalone.
thesurvival of the fittestthe idea that themost able or fit will survive (while theless able and less fit will perish) (This isused literally as a part of the theory ofevolution.) In college, it’s the survival ofthe fittest You have to keep working in or-der to survive and graduate I don’t givemy houseplants very good care, but the
Trang 27ones I have are really f lourishing It’s thesurvival of the fittest, I guess.
susceptible to something 1. easily per-suaded; easily influenced The studentswere susceptible to the allure of drugs
The young revolutionaries were suscepti-ble to propaganda.2.likely to contract asickness; likely to become sick Peoplewith AIDS are susceptible to pneumonia.
Infants and the elderly are more sus-ceptible to illness than other people.
swallow one’s prideto forget one’s prideand accept something humiliating Ihad to swallow my pride and admit that Iwas wrong When you’re a student, youfind yourself swallowing your pride quiteoften.
swallow something, hook, line, and sinker
to believe something completely (Slang.These terms refer to fishing and foolinga fish into being caught.) I made up astory about why I was so late The bossswallowed it, hook, line, and sinker Ifeel like a fool I swallowed it, hook, line,and sinker.
[swan song]Go to someone’sswan song.
swear by someone or something 1 to take anoath on someone or something Myuncle is sort of old-fashioned He makespromises by swearing by his “saintedmother.” He sometimes swears by hisfoot!2 to have complete faith and con-fidence in someone or something I’mwilling to swear by John He’s completelydependable This is an excellent brandof detergent My sister swears by it.
swear on a stack of Biblesand swear on
one’smother ’s graveto state somethingvery earnestly, pledging to tell the truth.
(Stack of Bibles refers to swearing to tell
the truth in court by placing one’s handon a Bible.) I swear on a stack of Biblesthat I am telling the truth Of course,I’m telling the truth I swear on mymother’s grave!
swear on one’s mother ’s grave Go toswear on a stack of Bibles.
sweat bloodto be very anxious and tense.(Slang.) What a terrible test! I wasreally sweating blood at the last Bob is
such a bad driver I sweat blood every timeI ride with him.
sweat something outto endure or wait forsomething that causes tension or bore-dom (Informal.) I had to wait for herin the reception area It was a long wait,but I managed to sweat it out TI tookthe test and then spent a week sweating outthe results.
sweep one off one’s feetand knock one off
one’sfeet 1 to knock someone down
The wind swept me off my feet Billpunched Bob playfully, and knocked himoff his feet. 2 to overwhelm someone(figuratively) (Informal.) Mary ismadly in love with Bill He swept her offher feet The news was so exciting thatit knocked me off my feet.
sweep out of somewhereto move or leave ina flamboyant or theatrical way The in-sulted customer swept out of the store
The celebrity rose from his table and sweptout of the restaurant.
sweep something under the carpetand
sweep something under the rugto try tohide something unpleasant, shameful,etc., from the attention of others Theboss said he couldn’t sweep the theft un-der the carpet, that he’d have to call in thepolice Roger had a tendency to sweepall the problems under the rug.
sweep something under the rug Go tosweep somethingunder the carpet.
sweet and low[of music] pleasing andquiet Play me something that is sweetand low I like dance music that is sweetand low—not any of this rowdy, violentstuff.
sweet and soura combination of fruitysweet and sour, but not necessarily salty,flavors (Often refers to certain Chinese-American foods.) I prefer sweet andsour pork to anything else on the menu
Alice does not care for sweet and sourdishes, but she will usually eat whatever weserve her.
sweet as honeyGo to (as) sweet as honey.
Trang 28sweet nothingsaffectionate but unimpor-tant or meaningless words spoken to aloved one Jack was whispering sweetnothings in Joan’s ear when they weredancing The two lovers sat in the cin-ema exchanging sweet nothings.
sweet on someone fond of someone.(Folksy.) Tom is sweet on Mary He mayask her to marry him Mary’s sweet onhim, too.
sweet-talk someoneto talk convincingly tosomeone with much flattery (Folksy.)
I didn’t want to help her, but she sweet-talked me into it He sweet-talked herfor a while, and she finally agreed to go tothe dance with him.
swift and surefast and certain (As withthe flight of a well-aimed arrow.) Theresponse of the governor to the criticism bythe opposing party was swift and sure
The boxer’s punch was swift and sure andresulted in a quick knockout and a veryshort match.swift as an arrowGo to (as) swift as anarrow.swift as the windGo to (as) swift as thewind.swift as thought Go to (as) swift asthought.
swim against the current Go to swimagainst the tide.
swim against the tideand swim againstthe currentto do the opposite of every-one else; to go against the trend Bobtends to do what everybody else does Heisn’t likely to swim against the tide
Mary always swims against the current.She’s a very contrary person.
swing into actionGo to go into action.
swing somethingto make something happen.(Slang.) I hope I can swing a deal thatwill make us all a lot of money We allhope you can swing it.
Trang 29table the motionto postpone the discus-sion of something during a meeting
Mary suggested that they should table themotion TThe motion for a new policywas tabled until the next meeting.
tag alongto go along with or follow some-one, often when uninvited or unwanted.Lisa always tags along when Tim andSally go out on a date I took my chil-dren to the zoo and the neighbor’s chilchil-drentagged along.
thetail wagging the doga situation wherea small part is controlling the wholething John was just hired yesterday, andtoday he’s bossing everyone around It’s acase of the tail wagging the dog Whyis this small matter so important? Now wesee the tail wagging the dog!
take a backseat (to someone)to defer tosomeone; to give control to someone
I decided to take a backseat to Mary andlet her manage the project I had donethe best I could, but it was time to take abackseat and let someone else run things.
take a bathGo to take a shower.
take a bath (on something)to have large fi-nancial losses on an investment (Slang.)I took a bath on all my oil stock I shouldhave sold it sooner I don’t mind losinga little money now and then, but I reallytook a bath this time.
take a bowto bow and receive credit fora good performance At the end of theconcerto, the pianist rose and took a bow.
The audience applauded wildly and de-manded that the conductor come out andtake a bow again.
take a breakand take one’s breakto havea short rest period in one’s work It’s
ten o’clock—time to take a break I don’tusually take my break until 10:30.
take a chance and take a risk to trysomething where failure or bad fortuneis likely Come on, take a chance Youmay lose, but it’s worth trying I’m notreckless, but I don’t mind taking a risk nowand then.
take a course (in something)to enroll in acourse and do the required work I de-cided to take a course in history Bobdrives into the city where he is taking acourse.
take a crack at somethingto have a try atsomething;to give something a try (Infor-mal.) I don’t think I can convince herto leave, but I’ll take a crack at it Some-one had to try to rescue the child Bill saidhe’d take a crack at it.
take a dig at someoneand take digs at
someoneto insult someone; to say some-thing that will irritate a person (Slang.)Jane took a dig at Bob for being late allthe time Jane is always taking digs atBob, but she never really means any harm.
take a dim view of somethingto regardsomething skeptically or pessimistically.My aunt takes a dim view of most thingsthat young people do The manager tooka dim view of my efforts on the project Iguess I didn’t try hard enough.
take advantage of someone or something 1.
[with someone] to cheat or deceive
some-one The store owner took advantage ofme, and I’m angry You must be alertwhen you shop to make sure that someonedoesn’t take advantage of you.2 to utilizesomeone or something to one’s own ben-efit Jane can be of great help to me, andI intend to take advantage of her Try
Trang 30to take advantage of every opportunitythat comes your way.
take a fancy to someone or something and
take a liking to someone or something; takea shine to someone or somethingto developa fondness or a preference for someoneor something (Folksy.) John began totake a fancy to Sally late last August at thepicnic I’ve never taken a liking tocooked carrots I think my teacher hastaken a shine to me.
take after someone to resemble a close,older relative Don’t you think that Sallytakes after her mother? No, Sally takesafter her Aunt Ann.
take a gander (at someone or something)toexamine someone or something; to takea look (at someone or something).(Slang.)
Hey, will you take a gander at that fancycar! Drive it over here so I can take agander.
take a hand in somethingto help plan or dosomething I was glad to take a handin planning the picnic Jane refused totake a hand in any of the work.
take a hard line (with someone)to be firmwith someone; to have a firm policy fordealing with someone The managertakes a hard line with people who show uplate This is a serious matter The po-lice are likely to take a hard line.
Take a hike!Go to Go climb a tree!
take a hintto understand a hint and be-have accordingly I said I didn’t want tosee you anymore Can’t you take a hint? Idon’t like you Sure I can take a hint, butI’d rather be told directly.
take (a)hold of someone or somethingand get(a)hold of someone or somethingto get incontrol of someone or something (Alsoliteral.) Take hold of yourself! Calmdown and relax She took a few minutesto get hold of herself, and then she spoke.
take aim (at someone or something) 1 to aim(something) at someone or something
The hunter took aim at the deer and pulledthe trigger You must take aim carefullybefore you shoot. 2 to prepare to dealwith someone or something Now we
have to take aim at the problem and tryto get it solved He turned to me andtook aim I knew he was going to scold meseverely.
take a leaf out of someone’s bookto be-have or to do something in the way thatsomeone else would When you act likethat, you’re taking a leaf out of your sis-ter’s book, and I don’t like it! You hadbetter do it your way Don’t take a leaf outof my book I don’t do it well.
take a lickingGo to get a licking.
take a liking to someone or somethingGo totake a fancy to someone or something.
take a load off one’s feetGo to get a loadoff one’sfeet.
Take a long walk off a short pier.and
Go play in the traffic.Get out of here!;Go do something that will get you per-manently out of here! Get out of here!Take a long walk off a short pier! Youbother me Go play in the traffic.
take a look (at someone or something)to ex-amine (briefly) someone or something.
(Also with have, as in the example
be-low.) I asked the doctor to take a lookat my ankle that has been hurting “Soyour ankle’s hurting,” said the doctor.“Let’s take a look.” Please have a lookat my car It’s not running well.
take a look for someone or somethingand
have a look for someone or somethingtomake a visual search for someone orsomething; to look for someone or some-thing Please go to the library and havea look for a book about snakes Take alook for a man in a black suit He is yourguide.
take a napto have a brief period of sleep.I took a short nap just after lunch
The baby takes a long nap each afternoon.
take a new turn[for something] to begina new course or direction When I re-ceived the telegram with the exciting news,my life took a new turn I began takingthe medicine at noon, and by evening thedisease had begun to take a new turn Iwas getting better!
Trang 31take an interest (in something)to developan interest in something I wish Johnwould take an interest in his schoolwork.
We hoped you’d take an interest and joinour club.
take an oathto make an oath; to swear tosomething You must take an oath thatyou will never tell anyone about this
When I was a witness in court, I had totake an oath that I would tell the truth.
take a nosediveGo to go into a nosedive.
take a peepGo to have a peep.
take a potshot at someone or something tocriticize someone or something; to in-clude a criticism of someone or some-thing in a broader or more general criti-cism Daily, the media took potshots atthe foolish politician John is taking pot-shots at me in his condemnation of officeworkers.
take a powderto leave (a place); to sneakout or run out (of a place) (Slang.)
When the police came to the door, Tom de-cided it was time to take a powder He leftby the back door When the party got alittle dull, Bill and his friend took apowder.
take a punch at someoneto strike or strikeat someone with one’s fist (Informal.)
Mary got so angry at Bob that she took apunch at him She took a punch at him,but she missed.
take a rain check (on something)Go to geta rain check (on something).
take a riskGo to take a chance.
take a shellackingGo to get a shellacking.
take a shine to someone or somethingGo totake a fancy to someone or something.
take a shot at somethingGo to give somethinga shot; take a try at something.
take a showerand take a bathto bathe.I take a shower every morning Johntakes a hot bath to relax.
take a spillto have a fall; to tip over (Also
with bad, nasty, quite, etc Also withhave.) Ann tripped on the curb and tooka nasty spill John had quite a spill whenhe fell off his bicycle.
take a stab at somethingGo to take a try atsomething.
take a stand (against someone or something)
to take a position in opposition to some-one or something; to oppose or resistsomeone or something The treasurerwas forced to take a stand against theboard because of its wasteful spending
The treasurer took a stand, and othersagreed.
take a toll the damage or wear that iscaused by using something or by hard liv-ing Years of sunbathing took a toll onMary’s skin Drug abuse takes a heavytoll on the lives of people.
take a try at somethingand take a shot at
something; take a stab at something; take
a whack at somethingto try to do
some-thing (Also with have; see the variants at
have a try at something The second, third,and fourth entries can also be literal.)
I don’t know if I can eat a whole pizza, butI’ll be happy to take a shot at it I can’tseem to get this computer to work right.Would you like to take a try at it? Sure.Take a stab at it I don’t know if I cando it or not, but I’ll take a whack at it.
take attendanceto make a record of per-sons attending something The teachertook attendance before starting the class.
I will take attendance each day.
take a turn for the betterto start to im-prove; to start to get well (The oppositeof the following entry.) She was verysick for a month; then suddenly she tooka turn for the better Things are takinga turn for the better at my store I maymake a profit this year.
take a turn for the worseto start to getworse (The opposite of the previous en-try.) It appeared that she was going toget well; then, unfortunately, she took aturn for the worse My job was goingquite well; then last week things took aturn for the worse.
take a vacationto go somewhere for a va-cation; to stop work to have a vacation. Sue took a vacation at the GrandCanyon last year I need to take a va-cation and relax.
Trang 32Take a walk!Go to Go climb a tree!
take a whack at someone or something 1.
[with someone] (Slang Whack is some-times spelled wack Also with have, as in
the examples below.) to hit at someone;to hit someone He took a whack at me,so I punched him Don’t try to take awhack at me again! I’ll have a wack atyou!2 [with something] Go to take a try
at something.
take care of someone or something 1.to dealwith someone or something; to handle ormanage someone or something Wouldyou please take care of this little problem?
This is an easy thing to take care of Iwill fix it immediately.2.to provide carefor someone or something John andMary took care of their aged grandmother.
Please take care of my plants while I amon vacation. 3. [with someone] to tip
someone I took care of the doormanas we left Did you remember to takecare of the waiter? 4.[with someone] to
kill or dispose of someone Max saidhe was going to take care of Lefty once andfor all The crime king ordered Max totake care of a certain private detective.
take charge (of someone or something)to take(over) control of someone or something. The president came in late and tookcharge of the meeting When the newmanager took charge, things really beganto happen.
take coldGo to catch cold.
take digs at someone Go to take a dig atsomeone.
take effectGo to go into effect.
take exception (to something)to disagreewith something (that someone has said).I take exception to your remarks, and Iwould like to discuss them with you I’msorry you take exception Let’s discuss thematter.
take fiveto take a five-minute rest period.(Slang.) Okay, everybody Take five!
Hey, Bob I’m tired Can we take five?
take forty winksGo to catch forty winks.
take (great) pains (to do something) tomake a great effort to do something
Tom took pains to decorate the room ex-actly right We took pains to get there ontime.
take heartto be brave; to have courage
Take heart, John Things could be worse!
I told her to take heart and try againnext time.
take heedto be cautious Take heed, anddon’t get involved with the wrong kind ofpeople Just take heed, and you’ll be safe.
take illGo to take sick.
take inventoryto make an inventory list.They are taking inventory in the ware-house, counting each item and writing thenumber on a list The hardware storeclosed once a year in order to takeinventory.
take issue (with someone)to argue withsomeone; to dispute a point with some-one I hate to take issue with you onsuch a minor point, but I’m quite sureyou’re wrong I don’t mind if you takeissue, but I’m sure I’m right.
take it awayto start up a performance.(Also literal Typically a public an-nouncement of the beginning of a mu-sical performance Slang.) And now,here is the band playing “Song of Songs.”Take it away! Sally will now sing us asong Take it away, Sally!
Take it easy.Good-bye and take care ofyourself (Informal.) Bye, Tom Take iteasy Take it easy I’ll see you later.
take it easy (on someone or something) 1 tobe gentle (with someone or something).(See also go easy (on someone or some-thing).) Take it easy on Mary She’s beensick Please take it easy on the furniture.It has to last us many years Take it easy!You will break the chair!2 [with some-thing] to use less of something (rather
than more) (Informal.) Take it easy onthe soup There’s just enough for one serv-ing for each person Please take it easy!There are hardly any left.
take it on the chinto experience and en-dure a direct blow or assault The badnews was a real shock, and John took it on
Trang 33the chin The worst luck comes my way,and I always end up taking it on the chin.
take it or leave itto accept something (theway it is) or forget it (Informal.) Thisis my last offer Take it or leave it It’snot much, but it’s the only food we have.You can take it or leave it.
take it slowto move or go slowly (Infor-mal.) The road is rough, so take it slow.
This book is very hard to read, and Ihave to take it slow.
take it to one’s graveto carry a secret withone until one dies I will never tell any-one I’ll take your secret to my grave Shetook the answer to the mystery to hergrave.
take it (up)on oneself (to do something) tomake something one’s responsibility
I took it upon myself to order more pen-cils since we were running out of them
I’m glad that you took it on yourself to dothat.
take kindly to somethingto be agreeable tosomething My father doesn’t takekindly to anyone using his tools I hopethey’ll take kindly to our request.
take leave of one’s sensesto become
ir-rational (Often verbatim with one’s.)
What are you doing? Have you taken leaveof your senses? What a terrible situa-tion! It’s enough to make one take leave ofone’s senses.
take liberties with someone or somethingand
make free with someone or somethingtouse or abuse someone or something
You are overly familiar with me, Mr Jones.One might think you were taking libertieswith me I don’t like it when you makefree with my lawn mower You should atleast ask when you want to borrow it.
take no stock in somethingand not takestock in somethingto pay no attention tosomething; not to believe or accept some-thing I take no stock in anything Johnhas to say He doesn’t take stock in youropinions either.
take note (of something)to observe and re-member something Please take note ofthe point I’m about to make Here is
something else of which you should takenote.
take notice (of something)to observe some-thing I didn’t take notice of when hecame in They say he came in late, butI didn’t take notice.
take off 1 to leave the ground and beginto fly (As with a bird or an airplane.)
When do we take off ? The eagle tookoff and headed toward the mountains.2.
to become popular and successful Herbook really took off after her television ap-pearance The idea took off, and sooneveryone was talking about it.
take off (after someone or something)and
take out (after someone or something)tobegin to chase someone or something
The bank guard took off after the robber.
Did you see that police car take off ?
It took out after the bank robber’s car.
take offense (at someone or something)to be-come resentful of someone or something. Bill took offense at Mary for herthoughtless remarks Almost everyonetook offense at Bill’s new book I’m sorryyou took offense I meant no harm.
take off (from work)not to go to work(for a period of time) I had to take offfrom work in order to renew my driver’s li-cense I hate to take off for somethinglike that.
take officeto begin serving as an electedor appointed official When did themayor take office? All the elected offi-cials took office just after the election.
take off one’s hat (to someone) to offerpraise for someone’s good accomplish-ments (Refers to taking off one’s hat toshow deference to someone.) I have totake off my hat to Mayor Johnson She hasdone an excellent job Yes, we all oughtto take off our hats She is our best mayorever.
take off (on something)and launch forth(on something) to start out a lecture onsomething; to begin a discussion ofsomething (See also set forth (on some-thing).) My father took off on the sub-ject of taxes and talked for an hour Myuncle is always launching forth on the state
Trang 34of the economy When he launches forth,I leave the room.
take one at one’s word to believe whatsomeone says and act accordingly Shetold me to go jump in the lake, and I tookher at her word You shouldn’t take herat her word She frequently says things shedoesn’t really mean.
take one’s breakGo to take a break.
take one’s cue from someoneto use some-one else’s behavior or reactions as a guideto one’s own (From the theatrical cue asa signal to speak, etc.) If you don’tknow which spoons to use at the dinner,just take your cue from John The otherchildren took their cue from Tommy andignored the new boy.
take one’s death of coldGo to catch one’sdeath (of cold).
take (one’s) leave (of someone)to say good-bye to someone and leave I took leaveof the hostess at an early hour One byone, the guests took their leave.
take one’s medicineto accept the punish-ment or the bad fortune that one de-serves (Also literal Informal.) I knowI did wrong, and I know I have to take mymedicine Billy knew he was going to getspanked, and he didn’t want to take hismedicine.
take one’s own lifeto kill oneself; to com-mit suicide Bob tried to take his ownlife, but he was stopped in time Later,he was sorry that he had tried to take hisown life.
take one’s timeto use as much time (to dosomething) as one wants There is nohurry Please take your time If you takeyour time, you’ll be late.
take out (after someone or something)Go totake off (after someone or something).
take out a loanto get a loan of money,especially from a bank Mary took outa loan to buy a car We will have to takeout a loan to pay the bills this month.
take overto begin doing something thatsomeone else was doing When you gettired of washing dishes, I’ll take over
You have been playing the drums longenough Let me take over.
take part (in something)to participate insomething They invited me to takepart in their celebration I was quitepleased to take part.
take pity (on someone or something)to feelsorry for someone or something Wetook pity on the hungry people and gavethem some warm food She took pity onthe little dog and brought it in to get warm.
Please take pity! Please help us!
take placeto happen When will thisparty take place? It’s taking place rightnow.
take precedence over someone or something
Go to have precedence over someone orsomething.
take pride in somethingto do somethingwith pride; to have pride for or aboutsomething The union workers tookpride in their work The artist took pridein her paintings.
take rootto begin to take hold or have ef-fect (Refers to newly-planted plants.)
Things will begin to change when my newpolicies take root My ideas began totake root and inf luence other people.
take shape[for something, such as plans,writing, ideas, arguments, etc.] to beginto be organized and specific My plansare beginning to take shape As mymanuscript took shape, I started showingit to publishers.
take sick and take ill to become ill.(Folksy.) I took sick with a bad cold lastweek I hope I don’t take ill before finalexams.
take sidesto choose one side of an argu-ment They were arguing, but I didn’twant to take sides, so I left I don’t mindtaking sides on important issues.
take someone apartto beat someone up.(Slang.) Don’t talk to me that way, orI’ll take you apart THe was so mad thatI thought he was going to take apart all ofus.
Trang 35take someone by surpriseto startle some-one; to surprise someone with somethingunexpected Oh! You took me by sur-prise because I didn’t hear you come in.
Bill took his mother by surprise by com-ing to the door and pretendcom-ing to be asolicitor.
take someone down a notch (or two)Goto take someonedown a peg (or two).
take someone down a peg (or two)and
take someone down a notch (or two)toreprimand someone who is acting too ar-rogant The teacher’s scolding took Bobdown a notch or two He was so rudethat someone was bound to take him downa peg or two.
take someone down (to size) Go to cutsomeonedown (to size).
take someone for a foolGo to take someonefor an idiot.
take someone for an idiotand take someonefor a foolto assume that someone is stu-pid I wouldn’t do anything like that! Doyou take me for an idiot? I don’t takeyou for a fool I think you’re very clever.
take someone for a rideto trick or deceivesomeone (Informal.) Old people arebeing taken for a ride by bogus workmen.
Whoever sold Tom that car took him fora ride It needs a new engine.
take someone for someone or somethingto mis-take someone for someone or something.I took Bill for his brother, Bob They lookso much alike! I took Mr Brown for thegardener, and he was a little bit insulted.
take someone hostageto kidnap or seizesomeone to be a hostage The terroristsplanned to take the ambassador hostage.
The entire family was taken hostage bythe robber.
take someone inGo to suck someone in.
take someone into one’s confidenceto trustsomeone with confidential information;to tell a secret to someone and trust theperson to keep the secret We are goodfriends, but I didn’t feel I could take herinto my confidence I know somethingvery important about Jean Can I take youinto my confidence?
take someone or something at face valuetotake someone or something by its out-ward appearance; to take someone orsomething as it first appears to be
Don’t just accept her offer at face value.Think of the implications Jane tends totake people at face value and so she is al-ways getting hurt.
take someone or something awayto removesomeone or something I don’t wantany more soup Please take it away TTakeaway Bill and John They are botheringme.
take someone or something by stormto over-whelm someone or something; to attracta great deal of attention from someone orsomething Jane is madly in love withTom He took her by storm at the officeparty, and they’ve been together ever since.
The singer took the world of opera bystorm with her performance in La
Boheme.
take someone or something by surprise tostartle or surprise someone or something.She came into the room and took themby surprise I took the little bird by sur-prise, and it f lew away.
take someone or something for grantedto ac-cept someone or something—withoutgratitude—as a matter of course Wetend to take a lot of things for granted
Mrs Franklin complained that Mr Frank-lin takes her for granted.
take someone or something in 1 to observesomeone or something (See also sucksomeonein.) The zoo is too big to takein the whole thing in one day TIt takestwo days to take in the museum.2 to pro-vide shelter for someone or something
When I needed a place to live, my uncletook me in T Mrs Wilson took in thelonely little dog and gave it a warm home.
3 [with something] to inhale, drink, or
eat something TI think I’ll go for a walkand take in some fresh air TJane was veryill, but she managed to take in a littlebroth.
take someone or something into accounttoremember to consider someone or some-thing I hope you’ll take Bill and Bob
Trang 36into account when you plan the party T
I’ll try to take into account all the thingsthat are important in a situation like this.
take someone or something onto undertake todeal with someone or something Mrs.Smith is such a problem I don’t feel liketaking her on just now TI’m too busy totake on any new problems.
take someone or something out 1 [with some-one] to take someone out on the town on
a date (Also literal.) I hear that Tomhas been taking Ann out TNo, Tom hasbeen taking out Mary.2 [with someone]
to remove someone who is acting as abarrier, especially in football (Informal.)Okay, Bill Get in there and take thequarterback out T Our player ran fastand took out the opposing player before hecould tackle our runner.3 [with someone]
to kill someone (Criminal slang.) Thethief who drove the car was afraid that theother thieves were going to take him out,too TThe crooks took out the witness tothe crime.
take someone or something overto take charge(of someone or something);to assume con-trol of someone or something Thenew manager will take the office over nextweek T Will you please take over yourchildren? I can’t seem to control them.
take someone or something wrongto misun-derstand someone or something
Please don’t take me wrong, but I believethat your socks don’t match You’ll prob-ably take this wrong, but I have to say thatI’ve never seen you looking better.
take someone’s breath away 1 to causesomeone to be out of breath due to ashock or hard exercise Walking thisfast takes my breath away Mary fright-ened me and took my breath away. 2 tooverwhelm someone with beauty orgrandeur The magnificent paintingtook my breath away Ann looked sobeautiful that she took my breath away.
take someone’s partto take a side in an ar-gument; to support someone in an argu-ment My sister took my mother’s partin the family argument You are alwaystaking the part of underdog!
take someone’s pulseto measure the fre-quency of the beats of a person’s pulse
I can take my own pulse The nurse tookmy pulse and said I was fine.
take someone to taskto scold or reprimandsomeone The teacher took John to taskfor his bad behavior I lost a big con-tract, and the boss took me to task in frontof everyone.
take someone to the cleanersto abuse ordamage someone (Slang.) There was areal rough guy there who threatened totake me to the cleaners if I didn’t cooper-ate The crook said he’d take anybodywho interfered to the cleaners.
take someone under one’s wing(s)to takeover and care for a person John was-n’t doing well in geometry until the teachertook him under her wing I took the newworkers under my wings, and they learnedthe job in no time.
take someone up on somethingto take ad-vantage of someone’s offer of something.(Informal.) I’d like to take you up onyour offer to help T We took up theBrowns on their invitation to come todinner.
take somethingto endure something; to sur-vive something (Also literal.) I don’tthink I can take any more scolding today.I’ve been in trouble since I got up thismorning Mary was very insulting toTom, but he can take it.
take something amiss and take somethingthe wrong way to understand some-thing as wrong or insulting (Comparethis with take someone or somethingwrong.)Would you take it amiss if I told you Ithought you look lovely? Why wouldanyone take such a nice compliment amiss?
I was afraid you’d take it the wrong way.
take something at face value to acceptsomething exactly the way it appears tobe I don’t know whether I can take herstory at face value, but I will assume thatshe is not lying The committee took thereport at face value and approved the sug-gested changes.
Trang 37“to return something.”) I heard whatyou said, and I’m very insulted Please takeit back TTake back your words, or I’llnever speak to you again!
take something home (with oneself) 1 tocarry something to one’s home Wetook a lot of souvenirs home with us. 2.
to take a thought, idea, or concept away[to one’s home] from a meeting or con-ference Take this idea home with you.Think twice.
take something in strideto accept some-thing as natural or expected The ar-gument surprised him, but he took it instride It was a very rude remark, butMary took it in stride.
take something lying downto endure some-thing unpleasant without fighting back.He insulted me publicly You don’t ex-pect me to take that lying down, do you?
I’m not the kind of person who’ll takesomething like that lying down.
take something on faithto accept or believesomething on the basis of little or no ev-idence Please try to believe what I’mtelling you Just take it on faith Surelyyou can’t expect me to take a story like thaton faith.
take something on the chinto experienceand endure a direct (figurative or literal)blow or assault The bad news was areal shock, but John took it on the chin
The worst luck comes my way, and I alwaysend up taking it on the chin.
take something out on someone or somethingtodirect (or redirect) one’s anger or fearonto someone or something I don’tcare if you’re mad at your brother Don’ttake it out on me! John took his angerout on the wall by kicking it.
take something personallyto interpret a re-mark as if it were mean or critical aboutoneself Don’t take it personally, but youreally need a haircut I want to tell yousomething, but please don’t take itpersonally.
take something the wrong wayGo to takesomethingamiss.
take something to heartto take somethingvery seriously John took the criticismto heart and made an honest effort to im-prove I know Bob said a lot of cruelthings to you, but he was angry Youshouldn’t take those things to heart.
take something up 1 to begin to deal withan issue (See also take somethingup (withsomeone).) That’s too big a job for today.I’ll take it up tomorrow TNow we’ll takeup the task of the election of officers. 2.
to make the bottom of a skirt or pantscuffs higher off the floor I’ll have totake this skirt up It’s too long for me T
Please take up my pants cuffs They are aninch too long.
take something up (with someone)to raiseand discuss a matter with someone
This is a very complicated problem I’llhave to take it up with the office manager.
T She’ll take up this problem with theowner in the morning.
take something with a grain of saltGo totake somethingwith a pinch of salt.
take something with a pinch of saltand
take something with a grain of saltto lis-ten to a story or an explanation with con-siderable doubt You must take any-thing she says with a grain of salt Shedoesn’t always tell the truth They tookmy explanation with a pinch of salt I wassure they didn’t believe me.
take steps (to prevent something)to dowhat is necessary to prevent something.I took steps to prevent John from learn-ing what we were talklearn-ing about I haveto keep John from knowing what I’ve beendoing I can prevent it if I take steps.
take stock (of something)to make an ap-praisal of resources and potentialities
I spent some time yesterday taking stockof my good and bad qualities We allneed to take stock now and then.
take the bit between the teethGo totake the bit in one’s teeth.
take the bit in one’s teethand take thebit between the teethto put oneself incharge Someone needed to direct theproject, so I took the bit in my teeth Ifyou want to get something done, you’ve got
Trang 38to take the bit between your teeth and getto work.
take the bitter with the sweetto acceptthe bad things along with the goodthings We all have disappointments.You have to learn to take the bitter with thesweet There are good days and baddays, but every day you take the bitter withthe sweet That’s life.
take the bull by the hornsand seize thebull by the hornsto meet a challengedirectly If we are going to solve thisproblem, someone is going to have to takethe bull by the horns This threat isn’tgoing to go away by itself We are going toseize the bull by the horns and settle thismatter once and for all.
take the caketo win the prize; to be thebest or the worst (Folksy.) Look atthose fireworks If they don’t take the cake,I don’t know what does Well, Jane, thisdinner really takes the cake! It’s delicious.
Tom really messed it up What he didreally takes the cake.
take the day offto choose not to go towork for one day (Compare this with getthe day off.) The sun was shining, andit was warm, so I took the day off and wentfishing Jane wasn’t feeling well, so shetook the day off.
take the edge off (something)to remove theessence, power, or “bite” of something.I had to tell her some very sad things,so I spoke slowly and softly to take the edgeoff the news I put sugar in my coffeeto take the edge off.
take the initiative (to do something)to ac-tivate oneself to do something even if onehas not been asked to do it (See alsomake it one’s business to do something.)
The door hinges squeak because no one willtake the initiative to oil them Some-times, in order to get things done, you haveto take the initiative.
take the law into one’s own handsto at-tempt to administer the law; to act as ajudge and jury for someone who has donesomething wrong Citizens don’t havethe right to take the law into their ownhands The shopkeeper took the law into
his own hands when he tried to arrest thethief.
take the liberty of doing somethingto as-sume the right to do something SinceI knew you were arriving late, I took theliberty of securing a hotel room for you.
May I take the liberty of addressing youby your first name?
take the rap (for someone or something) 1.
[with someone] to take the blame (for
something) for someone else (Slang, es-pecially criminal slang.) I don’t want totake the rap for you John robbed thebank, but Tom took the rap for him. 2.
[with something] to take the blame for
(doing) something (Slang, especiallycriminal slang.) I won’t take the rap forthe crime I wasn’t even in town Who’lltake the rap for it? Who did it?
take (the) rollGo to call (the) roll.
take the standto go to and sit in the wit-ness chair in a courtroom I was incourt all day, waiting to take the stand
The lawyer asked the witness to take thestand.
take the starch out of someone 1 to makesomeone less arrogant or stiff (Infor-mal.) I told a joke that made Mr Joneslaugh very hard It really took the starchout of him John is so arrogant I’d reallylike to take the starch out of him! 2 tomake someone tired and weak (Infor-mal.) This hot weather really takes thestarch out of me What a long day! Itsure took the starch out of me.
take the trouble (to do something)to makean effort to do something (that onemight not otherwise do) I wish I hadtaken the trouble to study this matter morecarefully I just didn’t have enough timeto take the trouble.
take the wind out of someone’s sailstochallenge someone’s boasting or arro-gance (Informal.) John was braggingabout how much money he earned until helearned that most of us make more Thattook the wind out of his sails Learningthat one has been totally wrong aboutsomething can really take the wind out ofone’s sails.
Trang 39take the words out of one’s mouth[forsomeone else] to say what you were going
to say (Informal Also with right, as in
the example.) John said exactly what Iwas going to say He took the words out ofmy mouth I agree with you, and Iwanted to say the same thing You took thewords right out of my mouth.
take time offnot to work for a period oftime—a few minutes or a longer period.(Compare this with get time off.) I hadto take time off to go to the dentist
Mary took time off to have a cup of coffee.
take too much onto undertake to do toomuch work or too many tasks Don’ttake too much on, or you won’t be able todo any of it well TAnn tends to take ontoo much and get exhausted.
take to one’s heelsto run away The lit-tle boy said hello and then took to his heels.
The man took to his heels to try to getto the bus stop before the bus left.
take to someone or somethingto become fondof or attracted to someone or something.(Informal.) Mary didn’t take to her newjob, and she quit after two weeks Maryseemed to take to John right away.
take turns ((at) doing something)to do some-thing, one (person) at a time (rather thaneveryone all at once) Please take turnsat reading the book Everyone is takingturns looking at the picture It’s more or-derly when everyone takes turns.
take umbrage at somethingto feel that onehas been insulted by something Theemployee took umbrage at not getting araise Mary took umbrage at the sug-gestion that she was being unreasonable.
take up a collectionto collect money fora specific project We wanted to sendBill some f lowers, so we took up a collec-tion The office staff took up a collectionto pay for the office party.
take up arms (against someone or something)
to prepare to fight against someone orsomething Everyone in the town tookup arms against the enemy They wereall so angry that the leader convinced themto take up arms.
take up one’s abode somewhere to settledown and live somewhere (Formal.)
I took up my abode downtown near my of-fice We decided to take up our abodein a warmer climate.
take up roomGo to take up space.
take up someone’s timeto require too muchof someone else’s time; to waste
some-one’s time (Also with so much of or toomuch of, as in the examples below.)
You’re taking up my time Please go away.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to take up somuch of your time This problem is tak-ing up too much of my time.
take up spaceand take up roomto fillor occupy space (Note the variation inthe examples.) The piano is taking uptoo much room in our living room John,you’re not being any help at all You’re justtaking up space.
take up timeto require or fill time (Notethe variation in the examples Also
with-out up.) This project is taking up toomuch time This kind of thing alwaystakes up time.
take up where one left offto start upagain in the very place that one hasstopped I had to leave the room for aminute, but when I got back, I took upwhere I left off It’s time to stop forlunch After lunch, we will take up wherewe left off.
take up with someoneto become a friend orcompanion to someone Billy’s motherwas afraid that he was taking up with thewrong kind of people John and Bob tookup with each other and became closefriends.
taken abacksurprised and confused
When Mary told me the news, I was takenaback for a moment When I told myparents I was married, they were com-pletely taken aback.
taken for deadappearing to be dead; as-sumed to be dead I was so ill with thef lu that I was almost taken for dead
The accident victims were so seriously in-jured that they were taken for dead at first.
Trang 40talk a blue streakto talk very much andvery rapidly (Informal.) Billy didn’ttalk until he was six, and then he startedtalking a blue streak I can’t understandanything Bob says He talks a blue streak,and I can’t follow his thinking.
talk back (to someone)to respond (to a re-buke) rudely or impertinently John gotin trouble for talking back to the teacher.
A student never gains anything by talk-ing back.
talk bigto brag or boast; to talk in an in-timidating manner (Slang.) John is al-ways talking big, but he hasn’t really ac-complished a lot in life She talks big, butshe’s harmless.
talk down to someoneto speak to someonein a patronizing manner; to speak tosomeone in the simplest way Themanager insulted everyone in the office bytalking down to them Please don’t talkdown to me I can understand almost any-thing you have to say.
talk in circlesto talk in a confusing orroundabout manner I couldn’t under-stand a thing he said All he did was talkin circles We argued for a long time andfinally decided that we were talking incircles.
thetalk of somewheresomeone or somethingwho is the subject of a conversationsomewhere, especially the town Thehandsome new teacher was the talk of thetown John’s new car is the talk of theoffice.
talk oneself outto talk until one can talkno more After nearly an hour, he hadtalked himself out Then we began to askquestions I talked myself out in themeeting, but no one would support myposition.
talk shopto talk about business matters ata social event (where business talk is outof place) (Informal.) All right, every-one, we’re not here to talk shop Let’s havea good time Mary and Jane stood by thepunch bowl, talking shop.
talk someone down 1 to win out over one in an argument; to convince some-one by arguing She loves to argue She
takes pleasure in talking someone down
She tried to talk me down, but I held myground.2 to convince someone to lowerthe price She wanted $2,000 for the car,but I talked her down This is my finaloffer Don’t try to talk me down.
talk someone into (doing) somethingto over-come someone’s objections to doingsomething; to convince someone to dosomething They talked me into goingto the meeting, even though I didn’t reallyhave the time No one can talk me intodoing something illegal.
talk someone or something upto promote orspeak in support of someone or some-thing (Informal.) I’ve been talking upthe party all day, trying to get people tocome The mayor is running for reelec-tion, and everyone at city hall is talkingher up.
talk someone out of (doing) somethingto con-vince someone not to do something Itried to talk her out of going, but she in-sisted Don’t try to talk me out of quit-ting school My mind is made up.
talk someone out of somethingto convincesomeone to give something up This ismy candy, and you can’t talk me out of it.
I tried to talk her out of her property,but she didn’t want to sell.
talk someone’s ear offGo to talk someone’shead off.
talk someone’s head off 1 [for someone]to speak too much (Slang.) Why doesJohn always talk his head off ? Doesn’t heknow he bores people? She talks her headoff and doesn’t seem to know what she’ssaying. 2 and talk someone’s ear off
(Slang.) to talk to and bore someone
John is very friendly, but watch out or he’lltalk your head off My uncle alwaystalked my ear off whenever I went to visithim.
talk something outto talk about all aspectsof a problem or disagreement Annand Sally had a problem, so they agreedto talk it out TIt’s better to talk out a dis-agreement than to stay mad.
talk something overto discuss something.Come into my office so we can talk this