Today we’re looking at idioms and expressions from a range of national newspapers that were published on the same day. We do this every couple of months as a way of supplying you with up-to-date, frequently used idioms.
One newspaper describes the UK Prime Minister’s plans for leaving the EU as ‘a leap of faith’. Leap of faith refers to the act of believing in something when you have no real reason to believe that it is true or will happen.
In the news pages of a different paper, a journalist remarks that the Prime Minister’s advice to members of her own party will ‘fall on deaf ears’. If a suggestion or warning falls on deaf ears, no one listens to it.
Another tabloid is confident that the plans for Brexit will succeed and says it will be ‘full steam ahead’ for the UK after the leaving date. If you say it’s full steam ahead in relation to a particular project or piece of work, you mean that it will be started with great energy and enthusiasm.
The same paper also warns politicians that if they oppose the Prime Minister’s plan, they ‘can kiss goodbye to their jobs and their party’. If you say that someone can kiss goodbye to something desirable, you mean they should accept that they will not have it.
Thankfully, Brexit isn’t the only topic being discussed in the papers! The fashion pages of one newspaper feature an article on ‘vegan style’: that is, clothes that contain no animal products, such as leather or wool. ‘Green is the new black!’, it claims. The statement […] is the new black is used to say that something is now very fashionable. (‘Green’ here refers to clothes made in a way that does not harm the environment.)
On the sports pages of the same paper, it is written that a series of defeats have ‘taken their toll on’ the manager of a Premier League football team. If problems take their toll or take a toll on someone, they cause them harm or suffering.
A sports journalist in another newspaper writes about a football club that has recently criticized another club for using dishonest techniques to improve their game. The journalist describes the first club as ‘getting on their high horse’. If you get on your high horse, you speak or behave as if you are better than someone else when, in reality, you are not.
Still in the sports pages, another writer says a previously successful football team is now looking like ‘a spent force’. A spent force refers to someone or something that does not now have the power or ability that they used to have.
My Grandmother used the term “not much force” to describe someone (usually male) who lacked energy or initiative. Andy is a nice guy, but he’s not much force.
Thank you very much for this wonderful and useful passage.Learn a lot!
Serves as a tool to refresh your memory/ knowledge
Good to be in touch with it.
Thank you for such articles. Please could send some more articles in similar manner?
Thank you for the wonderful way to help me learn English idioms.
Your article “has what it takes.” Keep up the good and informational work.
Great post!
A little correction in the last paragraph: “… another writers says” –> “… another writer says”
SUPER
Thanks for helping for improving my english
helpful
Kate Woodford
Can idiom “Falls on deaf ears” stands same (corresponds ) with “cast on the Rock”
Very beneficial!
Even though the idioms are self explanatory through the reading of the news, still it’s very informative to me and shows a connection with idioms in other languages, which are sometimes very close or even identical to the English ones.
Thanks
Hi,
A possible typo occurred in the last paragraph:
// Still in the sports pages, another writers [sic] says … //
Thanks.
It’s a shame you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this brilliant blog!
I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding
your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will share
this site with my Facebook group. Chat soon!