Listen to the author reading this blog post:

by Kate Woodford

Today’s post is the latest in my ‘newspaper idioms and phrases’ series. The aim of this series is to keep you supplied with up-to-date, frequent English idioms. As with previous ‘newspaper idioms’ posts, these expressions all come from a range of national newspapers published on the same day.

Starting with a tabloid newspaper, a journalist writes that a period of warm weather predicted for the UK will be ‘a flash in the pan’ before the rain and cold return. A flash in the pan is something that lasts only for a short time. On the next page, it is reported that two footballers in England’s team had matching tattoos done in time for the Women’s World Cup. The players, it says, ‘bit the bullet’ in Australia. To bite the bullet is to force yourself to do something difficult or unpleasant.

Of course, the Women’s World Cup features prominently in this and all the papers. In the sports pages of the same tabloid, a journalist writes that the English team coach ‘keeps us guessing’ over who exactly will play in the next game. To keep someone guessing is to deliberately not tell them what you are going to do next. Also in the sports pages, it is written that a winning football team ‘gave’ their opponents ‘both barrels’. To give someone both barrels or let someone have both barrels is to attack or criticize them very forcefully.

Another tabloid reports that a celebrity who used to be famous for partying has ‘cleaned up her act’ and now has a very healthy, sensible lifestyle. If someone (informal) cleans up their act, they start behaving responsibly in a way that other people approve of. Meanwhile, a feature on an actor from the past claims that his drinking of alcohol was ‘off the scale’. Something that is off the scale is very great in degree or amount. Still on the subject of health, an article in the same paper recommends that people who can’t sleep at night should ‘up sticks’ to quieter, wealthier neighbourhoods. Up sticks is a British idiom, meaning ‘to go and live in a different place, with all your possessions’. The US equivalent is pull up stakes.

In the broadsheet, it’s the sports articles that provide most of the nice idioms. A brilliant gymnast who has had a difficult two years is once again winning competitions. She is quoted as saying that recently, everything has ‘fallen into place’. When things fall into place, they happen in a satisfactory way, without problems. Meanwhile, the goalkeeper on the winning side of an important football match is so surprised, she says she is ‘at a loss for words’. If you are at a loss for words or lost for words, you are so surprised or shocked, you cannot speak. Finally for this post, one of England’s star football players is in a race ‘against the clock’ to be fit enough to play. If you do something against the clock, you do it as fast as possible in order to meet a deadline.

I hope this post has taught you a few useful idioms. I’ll publish another of these ‘newspaper idioms’ posts in a couple of months.