Dhariwal English

kick with the other foot
Definition:
(idiomatic, Ireland) To belong to a different religion.
Example:
They would have married in a church but he kicks with the other foot.

===skip town
Definition:
(idiomatic) To leave one's place of residence suddenly, without warning.
Example:
The suspect skipped town when he found out the police were going to raid his apartment.

=== Lion's share
Definition:
The majority; a large or generous portion.
Example:
The gang stole a lot of money from the bank. But the lion's share of the money went straight into the leader's pocket.

===suit down to the ground
Definition:
(transitive, idiomatic) To suit perfectly.
Example:

===damp squib
Definition:
(idiomatic, by extension) Anything that doesn’t work properly, or fails to come up to expectations.
Example:
A firework that fails to go off, due to wetting.
2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”[1], The Guardian:
Arsène Wenger confessed: "The result was not an accurate indication of the match." Certainly, at half-time it seemed unlikely that Arsenal would catch fire so spectacularly because the first half was a damp squib of a display from Wenger's team, as Newcastle initially showed no ill-effects from their Old Trafford ordeal.

go down the wrong way
Definition:
(literally) To travel in or on an incorrect or unusual direction or path.
Example:
She took a big drink of milk and it went down the wrong way. She was coughing for the next two minutes.
The driver was confused and went down the wrong way on the one-way street.

===God forfend
Definition:
(idiomatic, subjunctive, dated) Don't let it be.
Example:

===rest his soul
Definition:
(idiomatic) Used parenthetically to mark the referent as being deceased
Example:

=== ringside seat
Definition:
(idiomatic) Any vantage point providing an excellent view.
Example:
A seat in the front row of a boxing or wrestling match.
1970, "Sky Spectacular," Time, 9 Mar.,
The remote area will offer astronomers a ringside seat for the sky spectacular.

=== bone-idle
Definition:
(Britain, idiomatic) utterly lazy
Example:
1836, Thomas Carlyle, New Letters:
For the last three weeks I have been going what you call bone-idle.

sit on
Definition:
(idiomatic) To take no action on
Example:
The chairman sat on the report until the end of the legislative session.
He started to act up, but she sat on him.
I sent the boss my proposal three weeks ago and he's been just sitting on it.
To be a member of
He sits on the appropriations committee.

=== in the bag
Definition:
(idiomatic) Intoxicated.
Example:
1862, Julie Rose (translator), Victor Hugo (author), Les Miserables (2009 edition), ISBN 9780812974263, p. 631:
"Listen carefully. We've got him, this Croesus! As good as. It's in the bag. It's all arranged."
1954, Charles Percy Snow, The New Men (2001 edition), ISBN 9781842324240, p. 61:
"We mustn't count our eggs before they're hatched, but I think it's in the bag," he said.
2004, Les Visible, The Dark Splendour, ISBN 9781869928698, p. 97:
"It's like the way it is for an alcoholic when he can't get a drink. . . . He bumps into more things now than he did when he was in the bag."

===ground ball with eyes
Definition:
(idiomatic, baseball, humorous) A weakly hit ground ball that barely evades the infielders.
Example:

===escape fire
Definition:
(idiomatic) An unconventional or counter intuitive solution to a difficult problem.
Example:
A fuel-free safe spot, consisting of burning grass as a method of defense against a forest fire.

=== talk to the hand
Definition:
(colloquial, US, idiomatic) Used usually sarcastically to dismiss another person's argument by indicating that the speaker (or writer) is not prepared to hear (or read) anything further that the other person has to say (or write). It is often used while simultaneously holding up the hand with the palm facing the speaker.
Example:
Girl, you can talk to the hand 'cause I ain't listenin' no more.

tough tuchus
Definition:
(idiomatic) Too bad (for you); the outcome one desires is not likely to evolve, due to active intervention by the speaker.
Example:

===up s**t's creek
Definition:
(idiomatic) Alternative form of up s**t creek
Example:

===write down
Definition:
(transitive, accounting) To make a downward adjustment in the value of an asset.
Example:
Used other than as an idiom: see write,‎ down.
2011, Ada Leverson, Love's Shadow: The Bloomsbury Group:
Good heavens, I can't write down to the level of the vulgar public!

=== loosen the purse strings
Definition:
(idiomatic, colloquial) To increase spending or allow increased spending; to relax control of spending.
Example:
1848, Parliament of Great Britain, “The Parliamentary debates”, volume 96‎, page cdlvii:
He thought the effect of this language from the Prime Minister had been to loosen the purse-strings of the Treasury.
2004, The 9/11 Commission report, final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (authorized edition), National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, page 358:
Proponents of the counterterrorism agenda might respond by being less inclined to loosen the purse strings than they would have been if offered a convincing...

===leather working
Definition:
(idiomatic) The technology of making products from leather.
Example:

go up
Definition:
(intransitive, Britain) To attend university.
Example:
Used other than as an idiom: see go,‎ up.
There are new offices going up in town.‎
Bananas have gone up because of a shortage.‎
The building went up in smoke. Once the fire got out of the basement, the building went up in minutes.‎
The producer hopes nobody goes up opening night.‎

===out to lunch
Definition:
(idiomatic, informal) Clueless, inattentive, or careless.
Example:
Away eating lunch or for a midday break; especially, away from work or a job.
She's out to lunch right now, but you may leave her a note.
After he drove with his turn signal on for five miles, I was pretty sure he was out to lunch.

===Love somebody to death
Definition:
To love somebody very much.
Example:
He loves her to death.

=== tongue-in-cheek
Definition:
(idiomatic) Not intended seriously; jocular or humorous.
Example:
He gave a tongue-in-cheek explanation of why the sky was blue, offering a theory about some primordial discount on light blue paint.

=== at odds
Definition:
(idiomatic) in disagreement; conflicting
Example:
The witness' statement seems to be at odds with the evidence, not a good sign for the prosecutor.
Shakespeare
He flashes into one gross crime or other, that sets us all at odds.

slender reed
Definition:
(idiomatic) A person, fact, or resource on which one can rely only to a limited extent.
Example:
1888, G. A. Henty, In The Reign Of Terror, ch. 12:
"It was perfectly natural for you to think that a lad of eighteen was a slender reed to lean on in the time of trouble and danger."
1908, E. Phillips Oppenheim, The Great Secret, ch. 35:
"It is a slender reed," Gilbert said, "for so mighty an issue to rest upon."
2009 Sep. 28, Jeremy Warner, "Governments can survive recessions, but not in this case," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 17 Aug 2015):
Yet these precedents offer no more than a slender reed for Gordon Brown, almost hopelessly down in the polls, to cling to.
2013 Sep. 23, Lizette Alvarez, "Rubio Withdraws Support for Gay Black Judge’s Nomination to the Federal Bench," New York Times (retrieved 17 Aug 2015):
The nomination of a gay black Miami judge to the federal bench will not move forward after Senator Marco Rubio announced he was withdrawing his support over concerns about the judge’s actions in two criminal cases. . . . “That is a slender reed for Senator Rubio to hang this on,” said Representative Alcee Hastings, Democrat of Florida, referring to the two court cases.

===snake oil
Definition:
(idiomatic) Any product with exaggerated marketing but questionable or unverifiable quality.
Example:
A traditional Chinese medicine used to treat joint pain.
A type of 19th-century patent medicine sold in the United States that claimed to contain snake fat, supposedly a Native American remedy for various ailments.

===big girl's blouse
Definition:
(idiomatic) An effeminate or weak man, a sissy.
Example:
2002, You can see why people might think you’re a bit of a big girl’s blouse, because you have manicures, sunbeds and bleach your hair. — Marie Claire, June 2002 question to David Beckham [1]

=== have words
Definition:
(idiomatic, of one party, followed by with) To speak sternly, angrily, or in an argumentative manner to.
Example:
1920, P. G. Wodehouse, The Little Warrior, ch. 2:
"It's no treat to me to 'and the dishes when the atmosphere's what you might call electric. . . ."
"Did they have words?"
Parker shook his head impatiently.
"That sort don't have words, Ellen. They just sit and goggle."
1890, George MacDonald, A Rough Shaking, ch. 47:
Clare was for a while protected by the man's unreadiness to have words with his brother, who always took his wife's part.
1975, "Gratton, Toros talk," Ottawa Citizen, 8 Dec. (retrieved 24 Aug. 2010):
Gratton has had a series of meetings with Toros president John F. Bassett since he quit the Blues last week after having words with coach Garry Young.
2003, Martin Wainwright, "Happy Chip on a natural high," guardian.co.uk, 18 Dec. (retrieved 24 Aug. 2010):
"This man is highly irresponsible," a spokeswoman tells the Post. "We definitely want to have words with him."

===tear a strip off someone
Definition:
(idiomatic, Canada) To scold vigorously.
Example:
The boss tore a strip off him for arriving late to the meeting.

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on the brink
Definition:
(idiomatic) Very nearly; imminent; close.
Example:
The old building seemed to be on the brink of collapse.

===suck it
Definition:
(idiomatic, vulgar) a rebuke or dismissal
Example:

===Do the trick
Definition:
Said about something that works.
Example:
Some lemon juice should do the trick to make this sauce more delicious.

=== all along
Definition:
(duration, idiomatic) For the entire time; always.
Example:
He thought he had me fooled, but I knew the truth all along.

===young fogey
Definition:
(idiomatic) Young and over-conservative person.
Example:

in bed
Definition:
(idiomatic) In terms of sexual prowess.
Example:
(Discuss(+) this sense) While on a bed.
Reading in bed and breakfasting in bed are two of my three favorite activities.
She wasn't kind or smart, attractive or even funny. Her only redeeming feature was that she was fantastic in bed.

===run around after
Definition:
(idiomatic, transitive)To spend a lot of time doing things for another person or group of people. Often used when that person could reasonably do the things for themselves.
Example:
I have spent all morning running around after the kids.

===on the prowl
Definition:
(idiomatic) Hunting or seeking.
Example:
The cat was always on the prowl for bit of string or a dangling shoelace.

===rubber room
Definition:
(idiomatic, education) Especially in New York City, a temporary workplace assigned to a teacher who is not permitted to teach in a classroom because he or she is under disciplinary review.
Example:
2002 Dec. 6, Robert L. Jamieson Jr, "Dec. 7, 1941: From boy to man in one hellish day," Seattle Post-Intelligencer (retrieved 7 Aug 2014):
"If you kept on worrying about being killed you could end up in a rubber room."
2003 Feb. 7, Peter Bradshaw, "Punch-Drunk Love," The Guardian (UK) (retrieved 7 Aug 2014):
Barry is... well, what? Borderline autistic and obsessive-compulsive, with serious anger management issues and a dangerous behavioural disorder that in the real world would get him a one-way ticket to the rubber room.
2013 Jan. 25, Comment by egginmybeer, "The gun lobby’s long reach," Boston Globe (retrieved 7 Aug 2014):
How is it that the Virginia Tech shooter Seung Cho and Adam Lanza weren't in a rubber room instead of in a classroom shooting people?
2010 Sept. 23, Stephen Holden, "Movie Review: Waiting for 'Superman' (2010)," New York Times (retrieved 7 Aug 2014):
The film briefly visits a “rubber room” in New York City where idle teachers accused of misconduct wait months and sometimes years for hearings while drawing full salaries.
2013 April 25, Corinne Lestch, "Report substantiates misuse of school property accusations against 'rubber roomed' teacher," New York Daily News (retrieved 7 Aug 2014):
The findings dropped the day before the one-year anniversary of his idling away in the rubber room, where teachers await disciplinary hearings.

===fallen over
Definition:
(idiomatic, South Africa) broken, failed, inoperable
Example:
past participle of fall over
We'll have to walk; my car has fallen over.

drug deal
Definition:

Example:
Used other than as an idiom: see drug,‎ deal.
1902 March 1, American druggist and pharmaceutical record, volume 40-41, page 152:
A new drug deal of mammoth proportions which has excited the liveliest amount of interest in the wholesale and retail trade in Cincinnati, and throughout the State, has just been consummated.
1985, Jack Doyle, Altered harvest: agriculture, genetics, and the fate of the ...:
Agrichemical interests, not part of the drug deal, were advised to pursue their own bill,
2001, West Africa, number 4258-4273:
Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have denounced the lack of transparency in a multinational HTV/AIDS drug deal for developing countries.
2005, John English, Ramesh Chandra Thakur, Andrew Fenton Cooper, Reforming from the Top: A Leaders’ 20 Summit, page 36:
There is little downside to the drug deal – the losses involved are profits from potential future sales of patented drugs.
2005, Alexander Kirsch, Securitization of Intellectual Property as a Funding Alternative, page 53:
After 2004 two deals were brought to market, 2005 has welcomed its first drug deal already in January.
2005, P. K. Vasudeva, World Trade Organization: implications for Indian economy:
The drug deal reached among the countries appeared to be a temporary relief to the developing countries.
2007, Jonas E. Alexis, In the Name of Education, page 84:
Drug companies are even giving doctors "free gists, free meals, free education, special deals" in order for those doctors to accept their drug deal.
2008, Mark Baldassare, Cheryl Katz, The Coming Age of Direct Democracy: California's Recall and Beyond, page 201:
The two sides also agreed on a prescription drug deal with sanctions on pharmaceutical companies that failed to provide discounts for low-income Californians.
An illegal business transaction where cash or something else of value is exchanged for illegal drugs, usually conducted in a clandestine manner.

===Walk on air
Definition:
Very excited or happy.
Example:
He was walking on air after he passed the exam.

=== red-faced
Definition:
(by extension) exhausted
Example:
Used other than as an idiom. Having a face that is the color red.
2004, Robin Chittenden, Birds of Prey of the World, page 31:
A red-faced bird with a striking white head and underside, and black-and-white wings and tail, the Palmnut Vulture lives in tropical forested areas of Africa, often by lakes, rivers, and seashores.
With a red face; flushed, due to emotional or physical causes.
A red-faced John edged his way quietly out of the room.
Coming home late and red-faced every night from the pub is not what I expected of you.
The customer gave a red-faced account of the argument with the waiter.
"I can't for the life of me think where I left the tickets!", she cried out, red-faced.
He collapsed, red-faced from the effort, against the door jamb.

=== turn over
Definition:
(transitive, sports) To give up control (of the ball and thus the ability to score).
Example:
Used other than as an idiom: see turn,‎ over.
To flip over; to rotate uppermost to bottom.
Turn over the box and look at the bottom.
They turned over the evidence to the authorities.
1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. IX, Working Aristocracy
But what is to be done with our manufacturing population […] This one thing, of doing for them by ‘underselling all people,’ and filling our own bursten pockets and appetites by the road; and turning over all care for any ‘population,’ or human or divine consideration except cash only, to the winds, with a “Laissez-faire” and the rest of it: this is evidently not the thing.
They can turn over about three hundred units per hour.
1883, Howard Pyle, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Chapter V
Thus they dwelled for nearly a year, and in that time Robin Hood often turned over in his mind many means of making an even score with the Sheriff
The Giants didn't turn the ball over in their last four games.

===through the roof
Definition:
(idiomatic) Rapidly increasing.
Example:
Fuel prices have gone through the roof since last Fall.
2011 October 23, Tom Fordyce, “2011 Rugby World Cup final: New Zealand 8-7 France”[1], BBC Sport:
With 16 minutes left on the clock and the tension climbing through the roof, Trinh-Duc tried his luck with a penalty from just inside halfway only to push it wide, but the unthinkable now seemed a real possibility.

highway robbery
Definition:
(idiomatic) Said of excessive or exorbitant prices.
Example:
They think they can charge $400 for a shirt? That's highway robbery.

===brown bag
Definition:
(idiomatic) A short presentation or seminar on a given subject, especially one given at lunchtime.
Example:
Did you attend the brown bag Tuesday on healthy exercise habits?

===diamond ring
Definition:
(astronomy) An optical phenomenon visible during a moment of a solar eclipse when only a tiny part of the sun is not obscured by the moon, shining like a diamond in the ring of the sun’s corona.
Example:
Used other than as an idiom: see diamond,‎ ring.
1907, Recreation, National Recreation Association, page 545:
If that mocking bird don’t[sic] sing // Daddy’s going to buy me a diamond ring. // If that diamond ring don’t[sic] shine // Daddy’s going to buy me a bottle of wine.
By extension, an engagement ring, usually one given by a man to a woman.
1923, Peter Bernard Kyne, Never the Twain Shall Meet, p. 19:
If it were not a tradition that a woman shall accept from her fiance a diamond ring which the idiot cannot, in all probability, afford to give her — well, women would not accept them.
2006, Mary Slonaker, The Vinton House, p. 37:
“Delvin, a diamond ring means you are engaged to be married. I barely know you.”
2010, Juliet Blackwell, If Walls Could Talk: A Haunted Home Renovation Mystery:
He frowned slightly, whether at the loss of a potential sale or the unnaturalness of a single woman standing beside a handsome man and not lusting after a diamond ring I couldn't be sure.

===kill
Definition:
(computing, Internet, IRC) To disconnect (a user) forcibly from the network.
Example:
Smoking kills more people each year than alcohol and drugs combined.
There is conclusive evidence that smoking kills.
He killed the engine and turned off the headlights, but remained in the car, waiting.
Kirk Douglas, (actor, as Peter), The Fury (1978):
Peter: Ask Childers if it was worth his arm.
Policeman: What did you do to his arm, Peter?
Peter: I killed it, with a machine gun.
The editor decided to kill the story.
The news that a hurricane had destroyed our beach house killed our plans to sell it.
My computer wouldn't respond until I killed some of the running processes.
That night, she was dressed to kill.
That joke always kills me.
It kills me to throw out three whole turkeys, but I can't get anyone to take them and they've already started to go bad.
It kills me to learn how many poor people are practically starving in this country while rich moguls spend such outrageous amounts on useless luxuries.
I'm just doing this to kill time.
He told the bartender, pointing at the bottle of scotch he planned to consume, "Leave it, I'm going to kill the bottle."
Between the two of us, we killed the rest of the case of beer.
Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate anymore.
The team had absolutely killed their traditional rivals, and the local sports bars were raucous with celebrations.
You don't ever want to get rabies. The doctor will have to give you multiple shots and they really kill.
My parents are going to kill me!
2011 February 4, Gareth Roberts, “Wales 19-26 England”[1], BBC:
That close call encouraged Wales to launch another series of attacks that ended when lock Louis Deacon killed the ball illegally in the shadow of England's posts.
[15/12/2025, 1:14 pm] Telenor Number: get on someone's wick
Definition:
(Britain, idiomatic) To annoy or upset someone, especially by repeated disagreeable actions.
Example:
His silly questions are really getting on my wick.